The Influence of Direct Democracy on Political Interest, Electoral Turnout and Other Forms of Citizens’ Participation in Swiss Municipalities

Abstract

Based on the data of a survey conducted among Swiss municipalities, this article inquires into the relationship between different institutional settings of local democracy and the amount of political interest of citizens as well as electoral participation and new forms of citizen participation like participatory planning or local agenda 21. The study identifies six distinct settings of local democracy in Switzerland, ranging from pure direct democracy to representative democracy. The analysis shows that the institutional setting of local democracy has no impact on the political interest of the citizens. It also reveals that instruments of direct democracy do not significantly weaken representative democracy as far as electoral participation is concerned. New forms of citizen participation are predominantly used alongside with means of direct democracy.

Key Words:

• Swiss local government
• electoral participation
• variants of Swiss local democracy
• direct democracy
• institutional settings of Swiss local democracy

Notes

 1. The municipalities represent the third and lowest level of the Swiss federal state. They are territorial entities subordinated to the legal regimes of the 26 cantons, which represent the intermediate level in the Swiss federalism.

 2. The attendance averages between 2 and 20 per cent of the citizens entitled to vote. Our data reveal that the average attendance is higher in small municipalities.

 3. When talking about small, mid-sized and large municipalities in Switzerland, one has to be aware that half of the Swiss municipalities have a population of below 1,000 inhabitants and only 4.5 per cent of all municipalities count more than 10,000 inhabitants (however, they account for 42% of the Swiss population). In a European context, Swiss municipalities are very small.

 4. It is only in the Canton of Neuchâtel where municipalities can choose between a direct election or election through the local parliament. Most of them have opted for the direct election.

 5. About 60 per cent have the possibility of a referendum and in about 75 per cent of the municipalities the citizens have the right to launch an initiative.

 6. The use of referendums within the last five years: never = 75.1%, once = 16.4%, twice = 4.7%, three times and more 3.8% (N=871). The use of initiatives within the last five years:never = 76.4%, once = 14.4%, twice = 4.7%, three times and more 4.4% (N= 1,013).

 7. Further analyses show a weak significant correlation between political interest and electoral participation or the use of direct democracy, which not only attests the appropriateness of using political interest as a separate concept but also the competence of our respondents that evaluate the political interest in a municipality.

 8. See the methodological appendix for detailed information on the function of the local secretary and on the survey we conducted.

 9. In a similar way, it can be argued that direct democracy also strengthens, instead of weakens, political parties because it offers them more possibilities to campaign and mobilize their rank and files (see Ladner and Brändle 1999).

10. The factor analysis (varimax) results in a single factor containing 42.6 per cent of the variance. The strongest factor loadings stem from the two variables ‘round tables’ and ‘participatory planning’. The factor scores are saved using the procedure ‘regression’.