Conclusion

Abstract

Few observers would deny that Swiss politics has changed and is still changing. It is certainly not by coincidence that the conveners of two national conferences held in January 2014 coined ‘Switzerland in Mutation’ and ‘Disenchanted Democracy’ as their titles.¹ But how and to what extent has Swiss consensus democracy actually transformed? The answer is straightforward: it has transformed considerably. In fact, it has transformed to an extent that previous studies did not — or could not — recognize. On the one hand, studies looking at institutions and macrostructural aspects have emphasized the resilience of consensus, corporatism, and consociationalism. However, these studies provide only a bird’s eye view and are not well suited to identify changes in day-to-day politics. On the other hand, extant studies on decision-making structures and processes have focused on single policy domains or on specific decision-making phases, and do thus not lend themselves well to comparison, let alone to generalization. By contrast, the 11 most important decision-making processes of the early 2000s analyzed in this book cover a range of policy domains. Relying on a comprehensive framework, including all major phases of political decision-making, and on a rich collection of data gathered through more than 250 interviews with the political elite, has enabled us to uncover both changes over time and differences across processes, and offers an up-to-date and detailed account of Swiss politics at the beginning of the 21st century.