‘Let's Talk Cash’: Cantons' Interests and the Reform of Swiss Federalism |
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Authors: | Fabio Cappelletti Manuel Fischer Pascal Sciarini |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland;2. Department of Environmental Social Sciences, Eawag, Dübendorf, Switzerland |
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Abstract: | In 2004 the Swiss people accepted a new equalization scheme and a new distribution of competences between the federal state and the cantons. It was argued that the reform was successful because of the capacity of veto-players to overcome their interests and adopt a ‘problem-solving’ interaction mode. We propose a different interpretation and argue that distributive issues and the accommodation of actors' interests crucially mattered. We identify three mechanisms that contribute to a successful reform, i.e. package-deals, side-payments and the downsizing of the reform. Our in-depth, mainly qualitative study of both the content of the reform and related decision-making process supports the pertinence of these strategies for the explanation of the successful reform of Swiss federalism. |
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Keywords: | Switzerland fiscal equalization federalism constitutional reform |
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