Elsevier

Electoral Studies

Volume 24, Issue 1, March 2005, Pages 123-129
Electoral Studies

Notes on Recent Elections
The parliamentary and executive elections in Switzerland, 2003

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2004.07.001Get rights and content

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Background

Switzerland has a unique institutional set up among democracies.2 It is a federal republic combining perfect bicameralism, semi-presidentialism, and the extensive use of direct democracy. The 200-seat lower house of parliament, the National Council, represents the Swiss people as a whole, while the 46-seat upper house, the Council of States, represents the cantons. As both are directly elected on a cantonal basis, the only real

Electoral campaign

The campaign started early in 2003 but got under way in earnest from the end of August onwards. Even more so than in 1999, it was led by the SVP with its aggressive style, sharp political profile, and the most professional campaigning machine. Opinion polls indicated that the most pressing issues for voters' were, in order, the influx of asylum seekers, the state of the economy, reforms to the health and social security systems, and Switzerland's relationship with the European Union. The SVP

National Council results

In total, 262 party lists and 2852 candidates – 34.9% of whom were women – stood for election to the National Council, roughly the same figures as in 1999. Turnout rose, for the second time in a row, to 44.5%. Among the government parties, the SVP and SPS increased their share of votes and seats whilst the FDP and CVP declined compared to 1999. Among non-government parties, the Greens progressed significantly while the Liberals fell back and the minor fringe parties saw further erosion in

Council of States results

Five seats were allocated before the National Council election, 33 seats were allocated in the first round on 19 October and eight seats went to the second round. Overall the CVP obtained 15 seats, the FDP 14, the SP nine, and the SVP eight (see Table 2). Compared to 1999, the Christian-Democrats held onto their share, the Radicals lost four seats while the Socialists and the People's party gained two seats each. As in the elections for the lower house, the more extreme parties gained at the

Federal Council

Following its success in the elections, the SVP demanded a second seat in the Federal Council for its leader, Christoph Blocher, at the expense of the CVP, now the weakest of the four government parties. It threatened to withdraw into out-and-out opposition if rebuffed, which, in both substance and style, was at odds with the consensual ‘magic formula’ tradition of the Swiss political system. While the other parties and public opinion at large accepted the case for a second SVP seat, they had

Discussion

Although the elections results were widely reported abroad as ‘revolutionary’, they were more a reflection of several trends already under way for some time than any sudden change of direction.4 What was novel was that the cumulative effects of these trends had a substantial impact on the composition of the government. Four main trends can be identified. First, the growth of polarisation and ideological distance, led by the rise

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