Swiss politics and political institutions: 6. What about the citizens?

1. Swiss politics and political institutions:6. What about the citizens? Prof. Dr. Andreas Ladner iMPA 2012

2. Module 1 • Society and History • Federalism and Municipalities • Government and Parliament • Direct Democracy • Party system and Parties • What about the citizens?

5. What makes people vote what makes them decide for a specific party? • Sociological approaches (class, occupation, ethnicity, sex, age) • Approaches of political scientists (issues, political programs, electoral campaigns, and the popularity of party leaders ) • Social psychological approaches (relate voting decisions to the voter's psychological predispositions or attitudes, for example party identification) • Rational Choice (cost-benefit calculations)

6. Spatial theories of voting • Proximity Voting (Downs 1957) • Directional Voting (Rabinowitz und Macdonald 1989)

7. Rouiller 2009:2

8. References • Budge, I. and D. Farlie (1983). Explaining and Predicting Elections: Issue Effects and Party Strategies in Twenty-Three Democracies. London: George Allen & Unwin. • Downs, A. (1957). An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper & Row Publishers. • Grofman, Bernard (1985): The Neglected Role of the Status Quo in Models of Issue Voting. In: The Journal of Politics, 47, 230-237. • Iversen, Torben (1994): Political Leadership and Representation in West European Democracies: A Test of Three Models of Voting. In: American Journal of Political Science, 45-74. • Kedar, Orit (2005): When Moderate Voter prefer Extreme Parties: Policy Balancing in Parliamentary Elections. In: American Political Science Review 99: 185-199. • Rabinowitz, G. and S. E. Macdonald (1989). 'A Directional Theory of Issue Voting', The American Political Science Review, 83(1): 93-121. • Stokes, D. E. (1963). 'Spatial Models of Party Competition', The American Political Science Review, 57(2): 368-77.

10. Who takes part in elections? Hommes = men; Femmes = women

11. Age?

12. Participation in popular votes according to age blue = over 30 years old; red = under 30 years old

13. Participation according to age and gender Hommes = men; Femmes = women

14. What leads to higher participation: education, income and marriage

15. Non-participation

16. The voting decision according to age Swiss People’s Party Liberal Party Christian Democrats Social Democrats Green Party Life cycle or generation effects?

17. Catholics and Voting Decision 1995 to 2007 Christian Democrats Swiss People’s Party

18. Dealignment and Realignment • Dealignment: The Catholics no longer vote for the Christian Democrats only; and the workers no longer vote for the Social Democrats. • Realignment: The Swiss People‘s Party found a new group of followers with its program based on traditional, conservative Swiss values and a strong stance against immigration and international integration. The Social Democrats also found a new group of followers among better educated professionals working for the state sector or in creative professions.

19. The voters on a left-right scale

20. Who would the non voters vote for? Swiss People’s Party Liberal Party Christian Democrats Social Democrats Green Party Preferences non voters Preferences voters

21. Who would the non voters vote for? Swiss People’s Party Liberal Party Christian Democrats Social Democrats Green Party Preferences non voters Preferences voters

22. How will we vote in future? From a show of hands and ballot boxes ...

23. ... to postal voting, and then?

25. E-voting Pre-Voting Sphere Voting Sphere Post-Voting Sphere • Campaign and decision making • The act of voting • Analysis, control

26. Elections for the National Council 2007 • 3089 candidates • 311 lists

27. How to find the right party or the right candidate?

28. The Swiss voting system: (party) lists with “Kumulieren” and “Panaschieren”

29. VAAs (Voting Advice Applications)

30. Election – Democracy UK – 280k

31. CH: www.smartvote.ch

33. Policy domains

34. Questionnaire

35. “Advice or recommendation”

36. Matching list (Candidates or parties)

37. Additional information

38. You compared to the candidate/party (smartspider)

39. Some results from our studies • Increasing and high participation of candidates (from 50 % in 2003 up to more than 80 % of about 3000 candidates in 2007) • The candidates seem to like the tool! • Increasing use of the tool (900’000 recommendations, about 300’000 users in 2007, 8 % of the voters) • Highly satisfied users (over 90 %) • The tool addresses specific parts of the population • Smartvote matters in terms of turnout and in terms of the outcome of elections

40. And what’s next?

41. The tunnel! Le vote électronique Smartvote

42. Smartvote 200+: From the matching list to the ballot list

43. Let’s open the tunnel?

44. The last meter • Smartvote gives us the possibility to select electronically • E-Voting gives us the possibility to vote electronically => There is (are) only one (a few) click(s) from the selection to the vote!

45. Additional tools: • Smartmonitor (roll call votes) • Smartinfo (for initiatives and referendums)

46. Conclusions The more demanding an electoral (political) system is, the more helpful are such e-tools. If e-tools matter, they are also used. E-tools have to be simple and user-friendly.

47. www.mypolitics.ch

48. Thank you for your attention!