The Swiss Parliament is distinguished in historical international comparison by its tradition of non-professional public service. Although existing literature on interest groups (IGs) mainly treats the influence and pressure they have placed upon members of parliament (MPs), for Switzerland – particularly in light of this non-professional public service tradition – it also appears warranted to study ties between IGs and MPs. These ties, however, whether in the form of MPs being full-time employees or leading members (but not employees) of interest groups, have so far not been studied systematically. This analysis investigates the evolution of these ties from 1970 to 2010. Taking as a point of departure the increased professionalization of the Swiss Parliament, especially due to the intro- duction of permanent and specialized committees and increased compensation for parliamentary work since the beginning of the 1990s, we find that the number of MPs who are also full-time employees of IGs has steadily decreased since the 1990s. The number of MPs serving as outside or “honorary” board members of IGs has, however, actually increased since the beginning of the 1990s. This also reflects the increased importance of the Parliament in the Swiss political system, which gives interest groups with an increased incentive to develop ties to MPs. At the same time, our results show that public IGs now have more MPs as board members than do traditionally corporatist IGs.
This research note presents an innovative dataset of Swiss MPs' interest ties between 2000-2011. The longitudinal analysis shows that the average number of interest ties per MP has more than doubled: from 3.5 in 2000 to 7.6 in 2011. Since the mid-2000s, public interest groups have accounted for approximately one out of two ties between MPs and interest groups, showing the strongest increase during the period. However, when looking at the most present individual groups, important business groups dominate and appear well connected with the governmental parties of the political right. Finally, interest groups are also able to forge themselves a strategic presence within the parliamentary committees that are the most relevant for their policy issues. Next research steps include the assessment of the (un)biased access of interest groups to the parliamentary venue and their policy influence
To what extent does the inclusion of marginalized groups in policymaking institutions influence policy outcomes? This article examines whether and under which conditions female legislators are more likely to represent women's interests compared to male legislators. Building on the literature on women's substantive representation, it is argued that the advocacy of women's interests by female representatives depends on a number of factors, namely party affiliation, contact with women's organizations, electoral district, and seniority. This argument is evaluated using vote level fixed-effect models based on a unique dataset from a direct-democratic context which combines representatives voting behaviour, women's voting preferences, and recommendations from feminist groups. The findings show that female legislators defend feminist interests more than their male colleagues but that they only marginally respond to women's electoral preferences. Moreover, gender has its most visible effect within the populist party.
In this paper we analyse the extent to which perceptions of the government’s role in the economic crisis impacted on the political behaviour of European citizens. This includes contentious political activities such as attending public meetings, participating in demonstrations, and joining strikes, but also electoral behaviour in the form of voting against the incumbent. We examine data from 2015 since it allows us to examine European nations experiencing different economic conditions as a result of the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent period of recession. We find that individuals who blamed the national government for the economic crisis and who were more unsatisfied with the government’s handling of unemployment were more likely to participate. However, the effect of these variables varied across different forms of political behaviour. Moreover, the study provides evidence that the effect of the perceptions of one’s own economic situation on political behaviour is conditional upon the perceptions people have of the way in which the government is dealing with the situation, and specifically with unemployment, a key marker of the extent of the negative effects of the economic crisis across European nations.
Cet article porte sur la problématique du regroupement familial des ascendants, à savoir une situation dans laquelle des adultes résidant dans un État font venir pour vivre près d’eux un ou deux parents âgés de plus de 50 ans, de nationalité étrangère et résidant à l’étranger. Il est basé sur une recherche menée en Suisse pendant deux ans, entre 2006 et 2008. Tout d’abord est mis en évidence le fait que cette problématique est rarement abordée dans le cadre de la littérature scientifique, puis la méthode de recherche adoptée est expliquée. Ensuite sont analysés les trois points suivants: le cadre juridique du regroupement familial des ascendants en Suisse, l’ampleur du phénomène, les raisons qui conduisent les familles à y recourir. La conclusion aborde la question de la signification de ces résultats par rapport à la manière dont les politiques migratoires construisent la notion de famille. Est en particulier évoqué le décalage entre les questions de solidarité intergénérationnelle transnationale qui se posent aux familles migrantes et le traitement national de ces questions par les États.
This article, which forms the introduction to a collection of studies, focuses on processes of state construction and deconstruction in contemporary Africa. Its objective is to better understand how local, national and transnational actors forge and remake the state through processes of negotiation, contestation and bricolage. Following a critique of the predominant state failure literature and its normative and analytical shortcomings, the authors identify four key arguments of the scholarly literature on the state in Africa, which concern the historicity of the state in Africa, the embeddedness of bureaucratic organizations in society, the symbolic and material dimensions of statehood and the importance of legitimacy. A heuristic framework entitled ‘negotiating statehood’ is proposed, referring to the dynamic and partly undetermined processes of state formation and failure by a multitude of social actors who compete over the institutionalization of power relations. The article then operationalizes this framework in three sections that partly conceptualize, partly illustrate who negotiates statehood in contemporary Africa (actors, resources and repertoires); where these negotiation processes occur (negotiation arenas and tables); and what these processes are all about (objects of negotiation). Empirical examples drawn from a variety of political contexts across the African continent illustrate these propositions.
Ce livre porte sur les fondements normatifs et les implications politiques de la citoyenneté dans les sociétés multiculturelles. Depuis une quinzaine d'années, l'un des sujets centraux sur lesquels les théoriciens politiques ont localisé leur attention est celui de l'adéquation de la grammaire normative et politique du libéralisme par rapport aux défis représentés par le multiculturalisme.
Does the wide distribution of political power in democracies, relative to other modes of government, result in better decisions? Specifically, do we have any reason to believe that they are better qualitatively – more reasoned, better supported by the available evidence, more deserving of support – than those which have been made by other means? In order to answer this question we examine the recent effort by Talisse and Misak to show that democracy is epistemically justified. Highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of their arguments, we conclude that the differences between an epistemic conception of democracy and an epistemic justification of democracy are fundamental to determining the relative attractions of different arguments for democracy, and their implications for actual forms of government.
Sur demande de la Délégation administrative de l'Assemblée fédérale, les Services du Parlement ont mandaté des chercheurs de l'Université de Genève (Département de science politique et relations internationales et Institut de recherche appliquée en économie et gestion) pour réaliser une étude scientifique devant répondre à trois questions: • Quel est le montant du revenu parlementaire, le volume du travail parlementaire et le rapport entre les deux? • Quel est le montant des charges découlant des activités politiques directement liées au mandat parlementaire? • Quelles catégories de personnes actives dans le secteur privé perçoivent une rémunération horaire comparable à celle des parlementaires? Ce rapport présente les principaux résultats de cette étude indépendante. Il s'appuie d'une part sur les données des Services du parlement (comptabilité et durée des séances) et sur une enquête par questionnaire auprès des parlementaires de la 49e législature (2011-2015), et d'autre part sur les données de l'Enquête suisse sur la structure des salaires (ESS).
Relying on post-election surveys, this paper analyzes how class and union membership condition voters’ abandonment of mainstream Left parties and the alternatives chosen by former mainstream-Left voters in the period 2001-14. Inspired by Przeworski and Sprague’s Paper Stones (1986), our analysis shows that Left parties face a trade-off between working-class and middle-class support and that unionization renders workers more loyal to Left parties that mobilize middle-class support. Union membership increases the likelihood that working-class citizens who abandon the mainstream Left continue to vote. It also increases the likelihood that voters abandon the mainstream Left in favor of radical Left parties while it decreases the likelihood that they turn to the radical Right. Controlling for union membership, middle-class leavers are less likely to abstain from voting and less likely to vote for the radical Right than their working-class counterparts. Middle-class leavers are more likely to vote for Greens and for mainstream Center-Right parties.
