The Swiss Policy Agendas Project

Abstract

This chapter describes the Swiss political system and adopts an issue attention approach to explore one of its defining institutions: direct democracy. By means of referenda and popular initiatives, voters regularly decide on the continuity and change of policies. Welfare and education (27%) and environment, energy, and transportation (21%) account for almost half of all the votes during the period 1990–2014. The direct democracy venue is often activated as a result of citizens’ pressure (“bottom-up”). However, the majority of these bottom-up proposals are refused by voters. Policy change through direct democracy occurs more frequently in a “top-down” manner, when political elites are required by constitutional rules to put the fate of some of their most important decisions to the ballot box.