Swiss politics and political institutions 5 Party system

Swiss politics and political institutions: 5. Party system and parties Prof. Dr. Andreas Ladner i. MPA 2011

Module 1 1. Society and History 2. Federalism and Municipalities 3. Government and Parliament 4. Direct Democracy 5. Party system and Parties 6. What about the citizens? 7. BADAC – Cantons (Dr. Christophe Koller) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Party systems = a set of one (? ) two or more parties. (see China, US and CH) There is more about a party system than the number of parties! | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

How to explain the existence of party systems? § Institutional theories § Historic theories on crises and transformation § Theories of modernization | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Lipset/Rokkan (1967): two revolutions and four cleavages national and industrial revolution: Centre – Periphery, State – Church, Owner – Worker, Industry - Land | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

The four cleavages § Centre – Periphery: The division between elites in the urban areas, and those in more outlying areas. (Liberals – Christian Democrats) § State – Church: A division between religious and secular voters. (Liberals – Christian Democrats) § Owner – Worker - A class cleavage, causing the formation of parties of the left and parties of the right. Sometimes it is argued that this cleavage represents a conflict between the rich and poor. (Liberals – Social Democrats) § Land – Industry - Continued state exercise of control over tariffs (customs) against freedom of control for industrial enterprise. (Liberals – Swiss People’s Party) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Remember? Cross-cutting Cleavages French speaking, Catholics, poor F rich poor German speaking, protestants, rich G rich cath. prot. cath. poor prot. | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Frozen Party System – These: ". . . the party systems of the 1960's reflect, with a few but significant exceptions the cleavage structures of the 1920's. This is a crucial characteristics of Western competitive politics in the age of "high mass consumption": the party alternatives, and in remarkably many cases the party organizations, are older than the majorities of the national electorates. ” (Lipset/Rokkan 1967: 50) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Kirchheimer (1965: 32) suggest a slightly different concept: the catch-all party § Ideology and cleavages lose their importance § Party leaders become more important § Party members become less important § The party is mainly interested in votes | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Characteristics of party systems § Number of parties § Volatility § Type of parties | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

„Effective number of parties “ Laakso/Taagepera (1979) : pi is the percentage of votes of a party. | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

The fragmentation of the Swiss party system compared | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

„Volatility“ Pedersen (1979) : n is the number of parties, vit is the percentage of votes of party i at time t and vi(t+1) the percentage of votes of party i at time t + 1. . | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Increasing volatility | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

What kind of parties? The big parties 1919 – 2007 28. 9 % 19. 5 % 15. 8 % 14. 6 % 9. 6 % | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

What kind of parties? The small parties | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

High polarization of the Swiss party system | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Swiss parties | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Four „older“ ones and a rather „new“ party § Social Democrats: Social security, solidarity, openness, environment § Radicals: knowledge, openness, fairness, growth, against bureaucracy § Christian Democrats: attractive business location, family, social security § Swiss People‘s Party: Against European integration, against immigration, lower tax burden § Greens: climate protection, reorganisation of the economy along more environmental lines, the strengthening of social institution and an active policy of peace | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

The emergence of the Swiss parties § Organisations of the citizens entitled to vote („Children of the popular rights“) § Bottom-up: first organisation in the cantons § National party organisation – Social Democrats (1888) – Liberal Party (1894) – Christian Democrats (1912) – Swiss People’s Party (1936) – Greens (1983) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Party organisations Rather weak and small. Parties belong to the civil society. – No constitutional recognition (Art. 137, since 2000) – Interest groups (and social movements) play an important role; consultation process opens the decision making process, direct democracy – Weak national party organisation, limited resources, low number of professional staff, heterogenous | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Party members 1997 -2007 Quelle: Gunzinger 2008 | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Average membership fees (in s. Fr. ) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Internal funding cantonal parties (percentages) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Number of professional staff (national parties) Vgl. Seminararbeit von Michael Bühler 2006 | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Ideological heterogeneity | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Candates National Election: Social Democrats and Swi People‘ s Party | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Candidates: Liberals, Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, Swiss People‘s Party, Green liberals, Greens | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Political Differences among the MPs of the different Parties | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

www. euprofiler. eu | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Seven policy dimensions and 28 questions § Wirtschaftliche Liberalisierung = economic liberalization § Restriktive Finanzpolitik = restrictive financial policy § Justiz und Innere Sicherheit = law and order § Restriktive Einwanderungspolitik = restrictive immigration policy § Umweltschutz = pro environment § Ausbau des Sozialstaates = pro welfare state § Liberale Gesellschaft = liberal society | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Party families (1) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Party families (2) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Homogeneity of the different party families | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Liberal parties (Switzerland Germany) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Liberal parties (GB, NL, DK) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Christian Democrats (Switzerland Germany) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Union pour une majorité populaire (France) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Green parties (CH, Germany and Austria) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Social Democrats in Switzerland Germany | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Labour (Engl. ), PS (France) und SAP (Sweden) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

Swiss People‘s Party, FPOe und Vlaams Belang | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |

SVP and PVV (Geert Wilders) | ©IDHEAP – Andreas. Ladner@idheap. unil. ch | | 08/03/2021 |