414 research outputs found
Recherche électorale: développements récents et application au cas de la Suisse
No full textLa conférence publiée ici a été présentée par Pascal Sciarini, professeur au Département de science politique et relations internationales de l'Université de Genève, lors de la séance du Comité de l'Académie suisse des sciences humaines et sociales (ASSH) du 13 septembre 2013.
Ce 22e cahier des Conférences de l'Académie vise à familiariser le lecteur à la recherche électorale. D’une part, Pascal Sciarini passe d'abord en revue les modèles classiques d'explication du vote, puis présente brièvement les principales pistes de développement que la recherche électorale a empruntées au cours des dernières décennies. D’autre part, il résume une étude qui permet d'illustrer les développements récents de la recherche électorale.Cite as: Sciarini, Pascal (2014): Recherche électorale: développements récents et application au cas de la Suisse (Conférence de l'Académie 22 / Swiss Academies Communications 9, 2). Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.89437
Who Is Influential and Why? The Determinants of Reputational Power
No full textPower is one of the most fundamental concepts in political science, and it is a crucial aspect of decision-making structures. The distribution of power between political actors and coalitions of actors informs us about who is actually able to influence decision-making processes. It is thus no surprise that power is a centerpiece of our assessment of political decision-making in Switzerland. In line with the main argument of this book, Chapter 3 has uncovered important changes in decision-making structures, which resulted in a rebalancing of power between governing parties, interest groups and state executive actors. Conjecturing about the reasons that may account for these changes, we pointed to factors of an organizational and institutional nature. For example, we put forward the decline of pre-parliamentary procedures oriented towards corporatist intermediation as a possible explanation for the weakening of interest groups. More generally, in several chapters it has been suggested that there is a relationship between the institutional design of a decision-making process, the related importance of decision-making phases and an actor's participation in these phases on the one hand, and the power of actors (and coalitions of actors) on the other. In addition, the analyses carried out in Chapters 2 to 5 draw our attention to the differences in power structure across decision-making processes or types of processes
'Going Public': The Mediatization of Decision-Making Processes
No full textIn most Western countries, the media are said to exert an increasing influence on the political game. This development, which has been described variably as a shift towards an 'audience democracy' (Manin 1995) or the 'mediatization of politics' (Mazzoleni and Schulz 1999), emphasizes the increasing importance of the media for political actors and political decision-making. In such a context, political actors need to communicate with both the media and the public in order to gain support for their policy plans and to influence decision-making. The media were noticeably absent from Kriesi's (1980) in-depth analysis of political decision-making in Switzerland. This suggests that in the early 1970s, the media did not matter or mattered far less than they do today
Recherche électorale: développements récents et application au cas de la Suisse
No full textPascal Sciarini, Conférence de l'Académie, Cahier XXII, 2014, Berne, Swiss Academies Communications 9 (2)
Das 22. Heft der Akademievorträge hat zum Ziel, die Leserschaft mit der Wahlforschung vertraut zu machen. Hierzu erörtert Pascal Sciarini, Professor an der Université de Genève, Département de science politique et relations internationales, zum einen in knapper Form die klassischen Modelle der Wahlerklärung. Im Anschluss hieran zeichnet er zusammenfassend die wichtigsten Entwicklungslinien nach, welche die Wahlforschung in den letzten Jahrzehnten durchlaufen hat. Zum anderen stellt er eine Studie vor, die sich als Illustration für die neuesten Entwicklungen in der Wahlforschung heranziehen lässt.Cite as: Sciarini, Pascal (2014): Recherche électorale: développements récents et application au cas de la Suisse (Akademievorträge Heft XXII / Swiss Academies Comunications 9, 2)
Europeanization, Institutional Changes and Differential Empowerment
No full textThe issue of European integration is of utmost importance for contemporary Swiss politics, as underscored by the presence of three decision-making processes relating to bilateral agreements with the EU, and two additional processes with a strong European dimension (the telecommunication act and the immigration law), among the 11 most important processes of the early 2000s. Previous chapters have highlighted substantial differences between domestic and Europeanized decision-making processes in terms of institutional design and decision-making structures. Chapters 2 and 3 suggest that the peculiarities of the three decision-making processes relating to bilateral agreements go along with specific power configurations among political actors. Chapter 5 draws our attention to the impact of Europeanization on the specific decision-making structure at work in a given policy process
Switzerland wanted more immigration controls, but economic self-interest will probably prevail
No full textFour years ago the Swiss voted to curb the freedom of movement of people between their country and the EU. Faced with the threat of a breakdown in its bilateral agreements with the EU, the government implemented only minor changes. With a further vote in prospect, Pascal Sciarini (University of Geneva) argues that economic realism is likely to win out over the desire to control immigration
Reactive, Slow and...Innovative? Decision-making Structures and Policy Outputs
No full textConsensus democracies like Switzerland are generally known to have a low innovation capacity (Lijphart 1999). This is due to the high number of veto points such as perfect bicameralism or the popular referendum. These institutions provide actors opposing a policy with several opportunities to block potential policy change (Immergut 1990; Tsebelis 2002). In order to avoid a failure of a process because opposing actors activate veto points, decision-making processes in Switzerland tend to integrate a large number of actors with different - and often diverging - preferences (Kriesi and Trechsel 2008). Including a variety of actors in a decision-making process and taking into account their preferences implies important trade-offs. Integrating a large number of actors and accommodating their preferences takes time and carries the risk of resulting in lowest common denominator solutions. On the contrary, major innovative reforms usually fail or come only as a result of strong external pressures from either the international environment, economic turmoil or the public (Kriesi 1980: 635f.; Kriesi and Trechsel 2008; Sciarini 1994). Standard decision-making processes are therefore characterized as reactive, slow and capable of only marginal adjustments (Kriesi 1980; Kriesi and Trechsel 2008; Linder 2009; Sciarini 2006). This, in turn, may be at odds with the rapid developments of international politics, the flexibility of the private sector, or the speed of technological development
The media is becoming increasingly independent from politics in Switzerland
No full textThe agenda setting power of the mass media has significant influence over the political process in European countries. Anke Tresch, Pascal Sciarini and Frédéric Varone assess the relationship between the media and policy-makers’ issue attention in the four phases of the law-making process in Switzerland. They find that although the media do not always give priority to the same issues as policy-makers, when looking at the referendum phase of the law-making process, media and policy makers’ priorities are aligned. However, this strong alignment becomes weaker over time. This, they argue, is a sign of the media’s growing independence from politics
Die Akteure der Schweizer Aussenpolitik: Wer sie macht und wer sie gerne machen würde
No full textIm Kapitel 2 analysiert Pascal Sciarini Akteure und Prozesse der schweizerischen Aussenpolitik. Er hält einleitend fest, dass die Zuständigkeit des Bundes für die auswärtigen Angelegenheiten im dezentralen Bundestaat eine Ausnahme darstellt. Zwar darf sich der Bund nicht über die Kantone hinwegsetzen; die Verfassung sieht die Mitwirkung verschiedener Akteure an der Festlegung der Aussenpolitik ausdrücklich vor. Dies sowie spätere institutionelle Reformen, mit denen die Stellung der Kantone und des Parlaments in der Aussenpolitik gestärkt wurden, änderten an der Dominanz des Bundesrats jedoch wenig. Der Autor zeigt auf, wie sich die Schweizer Aussenpolitik und Aussenwirtschaftspolitik, die lange in den Händen einer kleinen Elite lag, von zunehmend mehr Akteuren geprägt wird. Eine besondere Dynamik entwickelte die mit der wirtschaftlichen Globalisierung einhergehende zunehmende Durchdringung von Aussen- und Innenpolitik. In praktisch allen Departementen bildeten sich mit Aussenpolitik befasste Ämter; vorparlamentarische Konsultationen wurden informeller und selektiver; und zivilgesellschaftliche Akteure wie NGOs und andere öffentliche Interessengruppen brachten sich zunehmend in die Aussenpolitik ein. Schliesslich wurde die Mitbestimmung durch das Volk in mehreren Verfassungsrevisionen ausgebaut, was zu einer deutlichen Erhöhung von Abstimmungen mit aussenpolitischen Themen führte. Ein sinnvolles Gleichgewicht zwischen Wahrung der Interessen der Schweiz in ihren Aussenbeziehungen und den innen- und aussenpolitischen Restriktionen ist, so hält der Autor abschliessend fest, immer schwieriger zu finden
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