Swiss Federalism from a Comparative Perspective –Dealing with Reform Obstacles

Vatter, Adrian; Wälti, Sonja (2003). Swiss Federalism from a Comparative Perspective –Dealing with Reform Obstacles. Swiss political science review / Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 9(1), pp. 1-25. Wiley 10.1002/j.1662-6370.2003.tb00398.x

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In the first part of this introductory contribution, the authors present the content of this special edition as well as the individual articles and their main findings. The contributions are organized along three main comparative themes: the international and inter‐temporal comparison of Swiss federalism, the comparison of the constituent units from an institutional point of view, and the comparative analysis of their functioning in specific policy areas. In the second part of this article, the authors develop three theses concerning reform obstacles and opportunities of Swiss federalism related to polity, politics, and policy. They argue that federalism reforms are difficult to undertake given the conjunction of both centrifugal and centripetal dynamics. However, reforms are facilitated in Switzerland because institutions of federalism hardly ever turn into a politically contended issue and because federal conflicts and reform obstacles can be avoided by means of informal coordination.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Political Science

UniBE Contributor:

Vatter, Adrian

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science

ISSN:

1424-7755

Publisher:

Wiley

Language:

German

Submitter:

Reachel Klamt

Date Deposited:

07 Aug 2019 12:44

Last Modified:

21 Mar 2024 16:40

Publisher DOI:

10.1002/j.1662-6370.2003.tb00398.x

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.129537

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/129537

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