Political Change in Switzerland: From Stability to Uncertainty by Clive H. Church

Author:Clive H. Church [Church, Clive H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Public Policy, Democracy, National, Political Ideologies, Social Policy, Political Science, Nationalism & Patriotism, American Government, General
ISBN: 9781317443650
Google: OsVTDAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-06-10T12:15:15+00:00

8 The political strategies of Swiss populism

Swiss society clearly had a significant and continuing strata of conservatism which provided a necessary reservoir of public support for populism. However, the Schweizerische Volkspartei/Union Démocratique du Centre (SVP/UDC—Swiss People’s Party/Democratic Union of the Centre) and its allies provided the cues, controls and frameworks needed to transform this into a coherent and realistic populist challenge, developing the influence of the cleavage and focussing its activities on a limited number of topics. In other words, as Kriesi has often said, parties do not create cleavages but they mobilize and redirect them. And, in the SVP, populism had not just any old organization but a highly effective one which is largely in line with the basic values of Swiss populism. The SVP, in fact, turned populism from an inchoate and intermittent set of aspirations into a consistent cutting edge weapon, which was to prove very damaging to the establishment and the rest of the political system. For most of the time the two were almost two sides of the same coin, although there were differences in emphasis and operation between the two.

Clearly, the party took on this role mainly because it shares the same basic values and defensive ambitions as the conservative population and wishes to put these into practice. Doing this required both gaining power for itself and perhaps also changing the political system even though this does not seem to be a priority for all its supporters. However, as the self-appointed representative of populist opinion it believes it has the right to do this. And, while it does not admit to wide ranging constitutional change as an aim, its behaviour is hard to reconcile with traditional consensus politics. So the party brings with it a strategy which is wider, more political and more structural, though not necessarily more extreme, than the basic aims of the cleavage. Without this, the latter would be less distinct and less of a dynamic threat to the system.

This is also because the SVP has been able to provide populism with two other major supports. The first is its own organizational and institutional strengths. In fact, the SVP is the most modern party in the country. Not only does it have a disciplined and well-oiled machine with ample financial resources but it has developed a dynamic and ultra-radical cadre of party members who give the party and the cleavage a dynamism not found anywhere else in Swiss politics. It also has a place in government together with affiliated organizations which, together, enable it to campaign even more effectively at votations. At the same time the party continues to use parliament in partly traditional ways.

As a second support, the party has developed a series of highly successful tactics and new modes of action, to make the force of its wide support manifest and not just latent. To begin with it has developed a policy of constant campaigning, making a skilful use of the new media. At the heart of this is the party’s radical and innovative approach to the use of direct democracy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.