Highway expansion fails for several reasons, according to political scientists
Published: Sunday, Nov 24th 2024, 20:30
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According to political scientists, the billion-euro costs despite the announced austerity measures, the mobilization and the geographical distribution of the projects led to a "no" vote on the proposed freeway expansion. Furthermore, the Sunday vote was an exception in a long-term comparison, with three out of four government proposals failing at the ballot box.
"The left and progressive forces, such as the GLP, were able to mobilize very broadly in the referendum campaign against the freeway expansion," said Sarah Bütikofer, political scientist and editor of the online platform Defacto, in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency. The surveys in the run-up to the vote also showed that women were much more skeptical than men.
Because all four referendums were initiated by the left, the mobilization in these circles was great on Sunday. The bourgeois parties were able to convince people in their circles, but their arguments were not convincing beyond that, said the political scientist.
Moreover, the timing of the vote probably did not suit them either. "It is difficult to simultaneously explain austerity packages and make spending 4.9 billion Swiss francs on selective highway expansion palatable to the people," explained Bütikofer, who is also a project partner at the Sotomo research institute. This is why traditionally middle-class municipalities and cantons said no to the highway expansion.
Daniel Kübler, a political scientist at the University of Zurich and the Center for Democracy in Aarau, saw another reason in the geographical distribution of the projects. "For example, it was not clear to voters in Zurich or Ticino why they should approve a highway expansion, because no project was planned for them," said Kübler on request.
Röstigraben with Efas proposal
The Efas bill (standardized funding for outpatient and inpatient care) was the only bill to be accepted on Sunday. A look at the voting map showed a clear divide between the two German-speaking cantons and Ticino, while the French-speaking cantons rejected the bill.
"My interpretation is that the arguments of the trade unions were more effective in French-speaking Switzerland, while the Federal Council was more likely to be believed in German-speaking Switzerland," says Kübler. Another factor is that people in French-speaking Switzerland do not believe that health insurance premiums, which are higher on average in this part of the country, will fall as a result of the reform. In fact, the opposite is feared.
Voting population not a reflection of the resident population
The two tenancy law proposals were rejected by voters with 52% and 54% respectively. According to federal statistics, 58% of the resident population in Switzerland are tenants.
When asked why the rejection rate was not higher, Bütikofer said: "The voting population is not a direct reflection of the resident population. What's more, you can't directly deduce a person's individual voting decision from their living conditions."
In addition, many foreigners who do not have the right to vote in Switzerland also live in a tenancy. The fact that these two referendums were also successful is partly due to the mobilization of the entire left-wing camp and partly to the fact that the content of the proposals was unclear.
Three out of four proposals fail at the ballot box
All of the proposals that were decided on Sunday were so-called authority proposals. Unlike popular initiatives, these are drafted by parliament and are put to the people following a successful referendum.
Three out of four proposals were rejected on Sunday, which is an exception in a long-term comparison. On average, government proposals are accepted much more often than rejected, as analyses by Hans-Peter Schaub, political scientist at Année Politique Suisse, show.
"In principle, it is normal for certain parliamentary decisions to be rejected. That is part of direct democracy. It doesn't mean that the system is failing, on the contrary," said Schaub on request. Since 1971, the trend in optional referendums has been for the authorities' success rate to increase slightly.
"We live in an era of the federal state in which there is a relatively high level of agreement between the electorate and the authorities," says the political scientist from the University of Bern. Overall, a referendum is held on around six percent of proposals. According to Schaub, only around three or four percent of parliamentary decisions are ultimately overturned.
©Keystone/SDA
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