Andreas Ladner

Do voters turn out more under proportional than majoritarian systems? The evidence from Swiss communal elections

What is the impact of the electoral system on voting turnout? Due to the restricted number of countries and their heterogeneity, cross-national studies do not allow for the required statistical analysis of this much-discussed question. Because they use different electoral systems and exercise important powers, the Swiss communities (communes) offer a useful set of comparable political entities using either a PR or a majority system. Our study of these communities reveals evidence supporting the thesis that participation is higher under PR systems. As expected, PR also goes in hand with more political parties, but only in the smaller communities. This is not the case in the larger communities, yet there is still a positive, though more modest association between PR and turnout in community elections. However, in those PR communities voting turnout is also higher for cantonal and national elections where there are no differences concerning the voting system. This leads us to suggest that there must be more behind PR voting than a simple “mechanical effect”.

Do voting advice applications have an effect on electoral participation and voter turnout? evidence from the 2007 Swiss federal elections

Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) render a valuable platform for tackling one of democracys central challenges: low voter turnout. Studies indicate that lack of information and cost-benefit considerations cause voters to abstain from voting. VAAs are online voting assistance tools which match own political preferences with those of candidates and parties in elections. By assisting voters in their decision-making process prior to casting their votes, VAAs not only rebut rational choice reasoning against voting but also narrow existing information gaps. In this paper we examine the impact of VAAs on participation and voter turnout. Specifically, we present results on how the Swiss VAA smartvote affected voter turnout in the 2007 federal elections. Our analyses suggest that smartvote does have a mobilizing capacity, especially among young voters who are usually underrepresented at polls. Moreover, the study demonstrates how VAAs such as smartvote do affect citizens propensity to deal with politics in general.

Size and local democracy

How large should local governments be, and what are the implications of changing the scale of local governments for the quality of local democracy? These questions have stood at the centre of debates among scholars and public sector reformers alike from antiquity to the present. This monograph offers the first systematic cross-national investigation of these questions using empirical evidence gathered specifically for this purpose. Results provide insights that offer important touchstones for reform activities and academic research efforts in many countries

Does Direct Democracy Matter for Political Parties? An Empirical Test in the Swiss Cantons

According to most political scientists and commentators, direct democracy seems to weaken political parties. Our empirical analysis in the 26 Swiss cantons shows that this thesis in its general form cannot be maintained. Political parties in cantons with extensive use of referendums and initiatives are not in all respects weaker than parties in cantons with little use of direct democratic means of participation. On the contrary, direct democracy goes together with more professional and formalized party organizations. Use of direct democracy is associated with more fragmented and volatile party systems, and with greater support for small parties, but causal interpretations of these relationships are difficult.

Swiss political parties: Between persistence and change

From a comparative perspective, two aspects of the Swiss party system are particularly salient: the large number of parties and the relative stability of the distribution of power. Apart from social and cultural cleavages, the electoral system (PR), the competitiveness encouraged by the federal state and direct democracy can be seen as responsible for party proliferation in Switzerland. 1 Political stability stems from the integrative force of consociationalism, which has its roots in the small size of the country, its political culture, and the system of direct democracy. In Switzerland the most important parties are continuously represented in government, and there is no change of power between the parties in government and the parties in opposition. The composition of the national, as well as almost all cantonal, governments quite often remains unchanged over a long period. Since 1959, the national government, for example, has consisted of two members of the Radical Democrats (FDP), the Christian Democrats (CVP) and the Social Democrats (SPS), and one of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP). This composition is commonly referred to as the ‘magic formula’. The combination of a large number of parties and political stability is not without interest, since the literature on party research, influenced by the experience of the Weimar Republic, the French Fourth Republic, and postwar Italy, for long treated multi-party systems as inherently unstable compared with two-party systems, such as that of Great Britain. 2 However, in the last few years the Swiss party system seems to have become less stable. The 1995 and 1999 national elections brought about remarkable shifts in voting. The question is: will Swiss politics enter a period of instability and will there be serious changes in the party system? To grasp the importance of these changes, analyses restricted to the national level might be too narrow. It is a commonly accepted characteristic of the

Measuring Local Autonomy in 39 Countries (1990–2014)

ABSTRACT Local autonomy is a highly valued feature of good governance. The continuous efforts of many European countries to strengthen the autonomy of local government show the importance given to decentralization and the transfer of far-reaching competences to the lowest units. Measuring and comparing local autonomy, however, has proven to be challenging. Not only are there diverging ideas about the core elements of local autonomy, there are also considerable difficulties applying specific concepts to different countries. This paper outlines a comprehensive methodology for measuring local autonomy. It analyses 39 European countries and reports changes between 1990 and 2014. A network of experts on local government assessed the autonomy of local government of their respective countries on the basis of a common code book. The 11 variables measured show an overall increase of local autonomy but significant variation between the countries. The variables also add up to an overall measurement of local autonomy.

Can PR Voting Serve as a Shelter Against Declining Turnout? Evidence from Swiss Municipal Elections

To assess the impact of electoral systems on voting turnout, cross-national studies can be usefully complemented by studies of turnout in local elections in countries using more than one electoral system at that level. In this article, we look at data from a 1998 survey of Swiss municipalities to revisit the findings of our earlier study. This previous study, based on a 1988 survey, concluded, in particular, that there exists a positive relationship between proportional representation elections, party politicization, and voter turnout. The moment is opportune since, in the interval, turnout has markedly declined in Swiss municipalities, as elsewhere. By testing whether municipalities with proportional representation voting were more or less successful in stemming the decline, we learn more about the relationship among these three phenomena. We use the results for those Swiss municipalities which participated in both surveys as our primary source.

The Influence of Direct Democracy on Political Interest, Electoral Turnout and Other Forms of Citizens’ Participation in Swiss Municipalities

Abstract Based on the data of a survey conducted among Swiss municipalities, this article inquires into the relationship between different institutional settings of local democracy and the amount of political interest of citizens as well as electoral participation and new forms of citizen participation like participatory planning or local agenda 21. The study identifies six distinct settings of local democracy in Switzerland, ranging from pure direct democracy to representative democracy. The analysis shows that the institutional setting of local democracy has no impact on the political interest of the citizens. It also reveals that instruments of direct democracy do not significantly weaken representative democracy as far as electoral participation is concerned. New forms of citizen participation are predominantly used alongside with means of direct democracy.

Das Parteiensystem der Schweiz

Den Schweizer Parteien wird in der Regel eine schwache Stellung in Staat und Gesellschaft zugeschrieben1. Belegt werden kann dies nicht nur durch die lange Zeit fehlende Anerkennung der Parteien in der Verfassung2, sondern vor allem durch deren Rolle im politischen Entscheidungsprozess, in dem sie, wie etwa im Vernehmlassungsverfahren3, mit den Interessenverbanden einer starken Konkurrenz ausgesetzt sind (Neidhart 1986). Weitere Indizien fur die Schwache der Parteien finden sich auf der Ebene ihrer Organisationen. Diese sind klein, verfugen uber einen wenig professionalisierten Parteiapparat und — da die Schweiz keine staatliche Parteienfinanzierung kennt — beschrankte finanzielle Ressourcen. Hinzu kommen eine schwache Zentralisierung und eine geringe parteiinterne Homogenitat.

Measuring Local Autonomy

This chapter develops a comprehensive and empirically applicable concept to measure the autonomy of local government in the 39 European countries covered. To this end, we first discuss already existing measurements and typologies of local autonomy and decentralisation. We argue that existing data on fiscal decentralisation only tells part of the story and does not capture the role and discretion of local government in an adequate manner. Subsequently, we present our methodology to measure local autonomy, the coding scheme we developed to code the different countries as well as the different variables used. The chapter contains also information about the organisation of the whole project, the different experts involved and the method applied to gather comparative data.