Consociational Democracy in Switzerland: A Political‐Economic Explanation and Some Empirical Evidence*

Abstract

ABSTRACTConsociational democracy is usually explained in terms of the accommodation of conflicts resulting from cultural segmentation. This explanation hardly applies to modern Switzerland. This article presents an alternative explanation which focuses on conditions and strategies of majority formation. It is argued that direct democracy combined with a high level of socio‐economic and political differentiation makes a consociational pattern of decision‐making necessary. Such decision‐making, however, involves high transaction costs and, therefore, hardly allows for the formation of a stable grand coalition. The article investigates the consequences of this situation and presents some empirical evidence.