Re: Swiss elections and referenda - New Federal Councilor(s) election 7 December

[Alcibiades]

A bit of the trauma of what happened after 2014, a bit of "do you really want a Brexit style shïtshow if we blow up the bilaterals", and the UDC are on a string of defeats at the moment. They're still actively hated by the people who always hated them, but are finding it a lot harder to hang on to the declining pool of people who usually support them.

It played well in the 90s/00s when Switzerland was going through the same economic and identity crisis that other countries are going through right now. It plays less well these days - I think a lot of people are fed up of them banging on about immigration or the EU, when the most important issues have moved on to the climate, or the welfare state, or social changes or whatever.

Who are the SVP mainly losing votes to?

[Alcibiades]

What is the procedure these days for deciding on the composition of the Federal Council? I know there used to be the Zauberformel - is something like that still in effect, or is it just based on the whims of the various parties? Is there any real chance of the SVP actually removing an FDP member? This seems like the kind of thing which might spark outrage from others, especially if it’s randomly done in between elections.

[Alcibiades]

Because it's quite rare to have this sort of thing - here is some polling of approval of the Federal Councillors (marked out of 6, because that is how school grades work here - 6 being the best)



The two Socialists poll the best; followed by the two UDC (solid recovery for Parmelin who is widely considered to be having quite a good presdential year); then Amherd the Christian Democrat; and the two liberals at the bottom - Ignazio Cassis in particular continues to be seen as, basically, completely useless.

This will never actually turn into voting intention of any sort - the only real thing to take from it is that Alain Berset (only 2% don't know) has actually managed to become a household name. Which is probably the first time ever a Federal Councillor has actually done that.

There seems to be a pretty strong correlation between popularity and how well-known they are.

[Alcibiades]

Some news from the sticks - Glarus held its Landsgemeinde* on Sunday. Not in itself remarkable, but what was surprising were the joint decisions to include an amendment to the cantonal constitution to require CO2 emissions and banning cars in parts of the canton on Sunday. This join last years decision to ban oil and gas heating and earlier decisions such as that to reduce the voting age to 16. The point being that Glarus is not a progressive canton, and voted for instance well to the right of the country as a whole last year; which makes its Landsgemeinde's repeated progressive decisions rather eyebrow raising.

Seemingly there are a few reasons for this. In part is that participation in the thing basically requires standing in Glarus town square for five hours listening to debates and voting. As in, you're not going to do that without being fairly politically motivated to begin with. And older, less mobile types who tend to be very conservative in Switzerland don't really go and do that. And obviously crap weather can have an enormous impact. Forget reports on how the weather impacts voter turnout in a normal election, do you want to stand outside in the driving rain for 5 hours to vote on whether or not to take out a small load to fund the nursery school in a village that you don't live in?

As it turns out, the weather was fine on Sunday, not wonderful, but fine; which in turn leads to certain inconsistent groups of participants - notably women and young people, who would tend to bend things to the left overall.

Perhaps the bigger point though is that, well, it's not a secret ballot. Everybody can see how you can vote, which creates a certain social desirability bias that tends to work in favour of progressive politics. Although even this is a simplification because Appenzells' Landsgemeinde isn't at all progressive, you know, it is the assembly that kept of voting against women's suffrage into the 1990s - quite a contrast to Glarus - so the "social desirability" bias tends to go in the other direction there.

In part that is because Glarus still is overall to the left of Appenzell, the former being an industrial stronghold and the other being very agricultural and catholic; but the Glarus Landsgemeinde also functions differently. In putting people together to present, discuss and debate issues, they suddenly find themselves outside of their bubbles where they have to engage with the issues that are presented with them and with people who with a wholly different perspective. Alongside the possibility to amend propositions this all tends to make the assembly pretty good at finding compromises capable of winning a majority in favour of quite progressive legislation, even in a society that really isn't

Anyway, conclusion - should everywhere have a Landsgemeinde? No absolutely not, making decisions without a secret ballot would have appalling anti-democratic consequences. Are there any lessons we could stand to learn from the exercise? Well, probably, yes.

*when they all gather in the town square to vote on various traditions. Once upon a time a regular form of direct democracy used across the country but has - for obvious reasons - died out almost everywhere expect in Glarus and Appenzell-Innerrhoden where it survives most principally to function as a tourist attraction

The Landsgemeinden are naturally absolutely fascinating to me, and your post did a great job of illuminating the intricacies behind them. It also drives home how small these cantons (with their extensive federal powers!) are that the exercise is still possible. One question I have is do these two cantons have ‘regular’ legislatures, and if so, what is their relation to the Landsgemeinde? What precisely are the powers of the latter?