Multi-Level Elections in Switzerland

Abstract

Why do election results at national and regional parliamentary elections in Switzerland differ so widely? And why are these differences more pronounced in some constituencies than in others? This study discusses competing theoretical views of the linkage between elections held at multiple federal levels, and empirically tests their predictions using official election statistics and contextual data from Swiss national and cantonal elections between 1999 and 2003. Despite the spatially and temporally limited scope of this analysis, one conclusion suggests itself: current theories of the linkage suffer from their neglect of features of the electoral systems which may vary between different types of elections. Taking these institutional variations into account, we find a strong systematic relationship between election outcomes at different levels. Moreover, the linkage of election outcomes is, to some extent, contingent upon the degree to which regions are integrated into the national political system: while national trends in party support tend to drive election outcomes in nationally well-integrated cantons, election results ostensibly follow regional electoral developments in more peripheral cantons.

Electoral Linkages in Federal Systems: Barometer Voting and Economic Voting in the German Länder

“…The notion of the rise of distinctive Land‐level patterns of political competition in Germany, signalling the development of a new form of territorial politics, is similar to arguments made in the case of Switzerland by Selb (). He argues that regionally varying degrees of linkage (similarity in electoral behaviour at the cantonal and federal levels) may be due to variation in the degree of integration of regional politics into a single national model.…”

Congruence Between Regional and National Elections

“…A tradition of nonalternation of government may have different sources. Either the government includes the same (senior) government party for a long time (e.g., the Democrazia Cristiana in Italy or the Christelijk Democratisch Appél in the Netherlands) or some special, consociational rules are put into practice, as is the case in Austria and Switzerland (Marsh, 1998;Selb, 2006). Following Marsh (1998), we consider the following countries to have a direct vote-government alternation link: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy (1994-present), Norway, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.…”

Liberale Romandie, radikale Deutschschweiz? Kantonale Demokratien zwischen Repräsentation und Partizipation

“…Die Schweizer Kantone gerne als ideales ‚Forschungslabor' (Bühlmann et al. ; Selb ; Freitag ; Vatter , ) betrachtet, mit dessen Hilfe sich die variierenden Auswirkungen unterschiedlicher politischer Institutionen auf das politische Verhalten und die Staatstätigkeit überprüfen lassen. Es besteht zudem eine Reihe von Arbeiten, die sich mit den kantonalen Demokratiemustern im Sinne der Lijphart'schen Machtteilungsdimensionen und ihren Effekten beschäftigt haben (Vatter ; ; Vatter und Freitag , ).…”