Denise Traber

Party Unity in the Swiss Parliament: The Electoral Connection

This study investigates the connection between legislative and electoral politics in Switzerland. The authors postulate that party unity is higher in an election year, and more specifically in votes on issues that are important for the party platform and that are of greater visibility to voters. The authors analyse the entire voting record of the Swiss parliament (lower house) on legislative acts between 1996 and 2007, which consists of roll call votes as well as unpublished votes. The authors find a strong effect of elections on voting unity among certain parties, and also find encouraging support for the hypotheses that this effect is mediated by the visibility of the vote and related issue salience.

How economic crises affect political representation: declining party‒voter congruence in times of constrained government

Abstract How do economic crises affect political representation in times of constrained government? Our paper shows that among voters salience of economic issues increases during economically harsh times. However, parties respond only to a limited degree to economic shocks, with the result that congruence between parties and voters decreases. We theorise the incentives and disincentives different political parties have in choosing a saliency strategy and we provide evidence on the extent to which congruence depends on the severity of economic shocks and the government/opposition status of the party. We draw on cross-national data to measure issue salience for parties (CMP) and voters (CSES). While our findings clearly indicate a decline of congruence in times of economic crisis, we also find that it remains best for government and office-seeking opposition parties. We substantiate this finding by unpacking the ways in which incumbent and office-seeking opposition parties address the economy in their manifestos.

Die Salienz von Sachthemen im internationalen Vergleich: Zurück zu „It’s the economy, stupid“ während der Krise?

Wir untersuchen in diesem Beitrag die Salienz von Wirtschaftsthemen, die eine wichtige Vorbedingung fur okonomisches Wahlen darstellen. Wahrend die jungere Forschung zeigt, dass wirtschaftliche Themen bei der Bevolkerung nur eine masige Wichtigkeit haben, postulieren wir zunachst, dass diese Salienz wahrend der Wirtschaft- und Eurokrise zugenommen hat. Wir konnen zeigen, dass sich die Salienz von Wirtschaftsthemen zwischen 2008 und 2013 in beinahe allen 14 Landern in unserer Stichprobe stark erhoht hat. Bei anderen Themen, z. B Immigration, finden wir nicht das gleiche Muster. Weiter konnen wir fur einen exemplarischen Fall (Grosbritannien 2010) zeigen, dass neben der Salienz von Wirtschaftsthemen auch die personliche Betroffenheit sowie die Zuschreibung von politischer Verantwortlichkeit wahrend der Krise eine wichtige Rolle fur das Wahlverhalten spielen.

Europeanization, institutional changes and differential empowerment

The issue of European integration is of utmost importance for contemporary Swiss politics, as underscored by the presence of three decision-making processes relating to bilateral agreements with the EU, and two additional processes with a strong European dimension (the telecommunication act and the immigration law), among the 11 most important processes of the early 2000s. Previous chapters have highlighted substantial differences between domestic and Europeanized decision-making processes in terms of institutional design and decision-making structures. Chapters 2 and 3 suggest that the peculiarities of the three decision-making processes relating to bilateral agreements go along with specific power configurations among political actors. Chapter 5 draws our attention to the impact of Europeanization on the specific decision-making structure at work in a given policy process.

Coalition Formation in Parliament and during the Policy Process

In modern democratic systems, usually no single collective actor is able to decisively influence political decision-making. Instead, actors with similar preferences form coalitions in order to gain more influence in the policy process. In the Swiss political system in particular, institutional veto points and the consensual culture of policy-making provide strong incentives for actors to form large coalitions. Coalitions are thus especially important in political decision-making in Switzerland, and are accordingly a central focus of this book. According to one of our core claims — to understand the actual functioning of Swiss consensus democracy — one needs to extend the analysis beyond formal institutions to also include informal procedures and practices. Coalitions of actors play a crucial role in this respect. They are a cornerstone of decision-making structures, and they inform us about patterns of conflict, collaboration and power among actors. Looking at coalitions is all the more interesting in the Swiss political system, since the coalition structure is supposed to vary across policy processes. Given the absence of a fixed government coalition, actors need to form new coalitions in each policy process.