Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: With this first issue of the year 2015, we would like to bring political science closer to politics.Introducing our new Symposium format, the following six contributions present new data and provocative insights into Swiss politics in a concise and accessible manner.All articles have been peer-reviewed to ensure that academic standards are maintained, but authors were asked to stick to simple and straightforward language.The key question that animates them all are the numerous challenges linked to immigration in Switzerland, apparent not least since the acceptance of the popular initiative "against mass immigration" (Masseneinwanderungsinitiative, MEI) by the Swiss people and cantons on 9 February 2014.It is a matter of fact that nowadays immigration is provoking anxieties and reactions beyond the Swiss context.In this regard, the Front National has become the first French party in the 2014 European Parliament elections, gathering almost 25% of the vote; the United Kingdom Independence Party threatens to end Westminster's two-party system for good.Both have applauded Switzerland for its direct democracy, in general, and the decision taken on 9 February 2014, in particular.More recently, the Dresden demonstrations have had the effect of making the German elite unsure about how to deal with unexpected manifestations of popular activism such as PEGIDA. 1 Nevertheless, in several regards Switzerland remains a special case (Freitag and Rapp 2013).Switzerland, for a variety of reasons, is traditionally thought to be a rather tolerant society.Some consider the Alpine country to be a "paradigmatic case of political integration" (Deutsch 1976), where historical developments have helped to incorporate different religions and languages without destroying their cultural identities (Linder 2010;Vatter 2008).Direct democracy in particular has been important for bringing about the inclusion of territorially based minorities, first through the optional referendum (a sort of veto on legislative change, adopted in 1874), later also in the form of the popular initiative on partial constitutional change (introduced in 1891).So while Switzerland is praised for the opportunity it gives citizens to influence political decisions on a wide range of issues, the existence of various direct-democratic instruments has forced the political elite into 1 PEGIDA stand for Patriotische Europ€ aer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes, which translates as "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident", and is a registered association (eingetragener Verein) in Dresden, Germany.
Source: Swiss Political Science Review
DOI: 10.1111/spsr.12149
Authors: Markus Freitag, Adrian Vatter, Sean Mueller
Institution: University of Bern
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1517429089