Political participation in Swiss referenda at federal and cantonal levels: 1879–1981

Political participation in the process of semidirect democracy differs in several important respects from political participation in elections in representative democracies. This study discusses patterns of participation in 300 referenda at the cantonal and federal level in Switzerland during the 1879–1981 period. The purpose of this survey is to account for cross-temporal and cross-cantonal variations in terms of: (a) referenda type, (b) competition intensity, and (c) the influence of a multiple political culture. The findings suggest that distinctive political cultures and life styles, and other collective factors account for turn-out percentages and competition intensity. Voters tend to mobilize essentially to reject constitutional revisions and laws rather than accept them. The significance of cross-temporal differences was found to diminish during the 1952–1981 period. This tendency toward increasing standardization of Swiss political participation does not, however, completely blur the specificity of participation within cantons, suggesting that the multicultural nature of Swiss society is still prevalent.     

The Role of Semi-Direct Democracy in Shaping Swiss Federalism: The Behavior of Cantons Regarding Revision of the Constitution, 1866-1981

Swiss federalism operates as a semi-direct democracy involvingreiterated constitutional choice by the people and the territorialunits. In this respect, the Swiss federal process is uniquein comparison to other federal systems. An analysis of constitutionalreferenda and constitutional initiatives conducted from 1866to 1981 was undertaken in order to characterize the politicalbehavior of Swiss cantons concerning the referenda that havealtered the original Constitution of 1848. The behavior of thecantons may be explained by their sociopolitical features. Threegroups of cantons are distinguished by their pattern of behaviortoward proposed revisions of the federal Constitution. In addition,a comparison was made of the similarity and divergence of thecantons with the pattern of behavior of the entire federationin order to measure the degree of cohesion of the Swiss partnership.Strikingly, some of the cantons with a minority subculture weremore frequently in the winning coalition than were some cantonsthat share more of the characteristics of the majority culture.The Swiss federal process is found to strengthen nation-buildingby means of the continual adaptation, along with some innovation,of the original constitutional design on the part of the peopleas a whole and the cantons.