Integrating ‘new polities’ into ‘old polities’: The Swiss party elite

Abstract

This article offers a new approach to the important question of ‘New Polities’. After discussing various interpretations of the phenomenon, it proposes a conceptualisation on the basis of empirical data drawn from a study of the Swiss party élite. These data show that a New Politics dimension can effectively be measured, and that the ‘left‐right’ axis can be considered to represent an almost perfect synthesis between ‘Old’ and ‘New’ politics.