The Silent Reform of Swiss Federalism: The New Constitutional Articles on Education

Fischer, Manuel; Sciarini, Pascal; Traber, Denise (2010). The Silent Reform of Swiss Federalism: The New Constitutional Articles on Education. Swiss political science review / Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 16(4), pp. 747-771. Wiley 10.1002/j.1662-6370.2010.tb00447.x

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This article examines the decision-making process leading to the new constitutional articles on education in Switzerland. It analyzes how actors from both state levels (Confederation and cantons) could reach consensus in a process that was prone to a "joint-decision trap". To that end, we hypothesize which factors may be conducive to a "problem-solving" style of policy-making in a compulsory negotiation system. Rich empirical material from various sources supports our theoretical arguments: We show that shared beliefs and a common frame of reference, the procedural separation between constitutional and distributional issues, neutral brokers, and informal structures were all beneficial to the success of the reform project.

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