Direct democracy:

the Swiss case

Swiss Asian Summer School, July 7-11th 2014, IDHEAP Lausanne

Laetitia Mathys & Nicolas Keuffer

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Federal level
1. Two types of Direct democracy

2. Referendums and initiatives and consequences

3. Some important decisions regarding foreign affairs

4. Contradiction between People’s will and International law

Local level
5. Far-reaching local democracy and autonomy

6. Municipal assembly and instruments of Direct democracy

7. Significant differences of institutional settings

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Switzerland is the only country in the world where people have such
extensive decision-making powers.

The democratic tradition, the small size of the population, the literacy
rate of the country and the sophisticated media services allow the
kind of political system.

8 039 060 inhabitants

2396 communes
26 cantons
1 Confederation

= 3 institutional levels

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TWO TYPES OF DIRECT DEMOCRACY

1. Assembly Democracy

«Lansgemeinde» 
Appenzell Rhodes intérieures
Glaris

2. Referendums and initiatives

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REFERENDUMS & INITIATIVES

Amendements to the Constitution
 mandatory referendum
Introduction in the Constitution:
1848

Requests to change the constitution

 popular initiative
1891

Amendements to legislation
 optional referendum
1874
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 Proposition
6

Proposition Draft

Consultation
&
Parliamentary
debate

Final version

Possibilities of
referendums
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CONSEQUENCES OF THE REFERENDUM

 Veto against the decisions of the political elite

 Compromises between Parliament and People

 Influences the development of the state

CONSEQUENCES OF THE INITIATIVE

 Makes the political system more open and responsive

 Any political group may influence the political agenda

 Safety valve
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(Ladner 2011, iMPA)

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74%
accepted

55%
accepted

11%
accepted

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 9 SOME IMPORTANT INITIATIVES REGARDING FOREIGN AFFAIRS

• December 6, 1992: Switzerland refuses to join the EEE, European Economic Area, 76.9%

• March 3, 2002: joins the United Nations 54.6%

• November 29, 2009: against the construction of minarets 65%

• November 11, 2013: accepts the initiative to send back criminals foreigners 52.9%

• February 9, 2014: accepts the initiative «Against mass immigration» 50.3%

SVP = Swiss People’s Party

It is the largest party in Switzerland with a 26.6 %
10/01/14 share of the vote and represents
648 675 voters
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A strict
application of
the initiative by
the government

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PARADOX
People’s will VS the respect of the International law

Two political positions:

 «When the People has spoken, the governement must run in a strict
application». People has always right.
Initiative against mass Immigration, 2014
 Direct democracy

 « The Federal Council was not designed to run only but to govern».
An active representative government accommodates the People’s will.
Initiative to send back criminal foreigners, 2010
 Semi-direct Democracy
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THE « DARK SIDE » OF THE INITIATIVES

« And if voters are not always right ?» Swissinfo.ch – May 2014
« Popular initiatives: the first stones for reform » Foraus – April 2011
« How to better control the popular initiatives ? »Le Temps – june 2014

 Lack of public confidence in the authorities

- « Popular initiatives became an instrument of power » (Federal Chancellery): from a

bottom-up tool to a top-down instrument

- A reform ?
Increase the number of signatures
Reduce time to collect signatures
Create a supreme institutional control
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 13 DIRECT DEMOCRACY AT THE SWISS’ SUBNATIONAL LEVEL

Direct democracy takes a wide variety of forms at the subnational level in Switzerland
where it is even more highly developed than at the national level:

Regional
26 cantons level: - legislative referendum: automatic voting to change the legislation in
1/3 cantons
- administrative referendum against individual acts and administrative decisions
of the parliament (e. g. financial referendum)
- legislative initiative to amend laws and not only the constitution
- administrative initiative (measures in the area of public administration)
- far more referendums and initiatives at the cantonal level than at the national one

Local level: - in more than 80%: municipal assembly

- in more than 77%: referendums and initiatives
2352 municipalitiesautonomy
- far-reaching
- significant differences of institutional settings

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LOCAL DEMOCRACY
«Local communities are the heaven of democracy»
«Local communities are the training ground of a democratic
citizenry» (Vetter 2007)

- Cradle of democracy (ancient Greece)

- Closest to the citizen and their needs (accessibility, political interest and
more effective delivery of services)
- Nearness to the policy making (trust, information)
- Place of the direct deliberation
- Opportunity for political participation
- Socialisation function

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European Charter of Local Self-Government: “the right of citizens to

participate in the conduct of public affairs is one of the democratic principles
that are shared by all member States of the Council of Europe, and (…) that it is
at local level that this right can be most directly exercised, and (…) that this
entails the existence of local authorities endowed with democratically
constituted decision-making bodies and possessing a wide degree of autonomy”
(Council of Europe 1985)

Swiss Constitution:
Subsidiarity: “The principle of subsidiarity must be observed in the allocation
and performance of state tasks” (Art. 5a).
Municipality autonomy: “The autonomy of the communes is guaranteed in
accordance with cantonal law” (Art. 50:1).

 Far reaching municipalities’ autonomy and federalism: important

differences exist with regard to the institutional settings
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LOCAL DEMOCRACY IN SWITZERLAND

1°) Two different political systems at the local level based upon two conceptions
of democracy:

Baar: 20,266 inhabitants Olten: 17,000 inhabitants

- Municipal assembly (81.9%) - Local Parliament (18.1%)

Direct democracy Representative democracy

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Municipal assembly:
German-speaking
cantons and smaller
municipalities

Parliament:
French and Italian
speaking cantons and
large municipalities

Survey 2009 (N=1350 municipalities)

2°) Direct democratic instruments:

Referendums (mandatory, facultative and financial) and initiatives
(popular and personal) in 77.9% % of municipalities
More frequent in big municipalities and in German-speaking region

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SWITZERLAND AS AN INTERESTING CASE TO ANALYSE

QUESTIONS LINKED WITH LOCAL DEMOCRACY

E.g. «The influence of Direct Democracy on Political Interest, Electoral

Turnout and Other Forms of Citizens’ Participation in Swiss
Municipalities» (Ladner and Fiechter 2012)

“The change from an assembly democracy to a local parliament, or the

introductions of additional means of direct democracy such as initiatives
and referendums, neither fundamentally change the citizens’ interest in
politics nor does it increase or lower electoral participation in a dramatic
way. (…) Means of direct democracy do not seem to be an obstacle for
the introduction of participative instrument.”

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DIRECT DEMOCRACY INSTEAD OF PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY

General trend across European countries:

NPM reforms and governance stressed efficiency instead of responsiveness
Growing disenchantment of citizens with politics and the political elite (citizens
become more demanding)
 Implementation of participatory and deliberative instruments

But participatory democracy

at the Swiss’ local level is not
(yet) an issue !

Survey 2009 (N=1350 municipalities)

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
«The Swiss Confederation in brief» on www.admin.ch

Ladner, Andreas, iMPA, 2011 «Direct Democracy»

Ladner, Andreas, Fiechter, Julien (2012). «The influence of Direct Democracy on Political interest,
Electoral turnout and Other Forms of Citizens’Participation in Swiss Municiaplities». Local
Government Studies, 38:4, 437-459.

Ladner, Andreas (2011). «Switzerland : subsidiarity, power-sharing, and direct democracy». In John
Loughlin ... [et al.]. The Oxford handbook of local and regional democracy in Europe. Oxford :
Oxford Univ. Press, p. 196-217.

Vater, Adrian (2002). Kantonale Demokratien im Vergleich: Entstehungsgründe, Interaktioanen und

Wirkungen politischer Institutionen in den Schweizer Kantonen. Opladen: Leske & Budrich.

Vetter, Angelika (2007). Lokale Politik als Ressource der Demokratie in Europa? Lokale Autonomie,
lokale Strukturen und die Einstellungen der Bürger zur lokalen Politik. Opladen: Leske + Budrich.

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