Consensus democracy: legislative decision-making in Switzerland

Abstract

This dissertation is guided by two main research questions: First, how does consensus democracy in Switzerland work in the 21th century? and second, how do the recent changes in the Swiss party system affect legislative politics in Switzerland? The first part of the thesis tests an important claim that participation in policy making should increase satisfaction with the policy outcome. We study the interest groups that participate in policy making processes, their assessment of the degree of consensus and satisfaction with policy outcomes. The second part of the thesis studies different aspects of legislative behaviour in the recent legislative periods (1996 – 2011): the parties' voting coalitions and success in parliament, the parties' voting unity and their policy positions. These three articles are interested in whether and how legislative politics has changed after the recent polarisation of the Swiss party system. Overall, the results of this dissertation indicate that Swiss consensus democracy still works reasonably well at the beginning of the 21th century.