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The Silent Reform of Swiss Federalism: The New Constitutional Articles on Education
Author(s) -
Fischer Manuel,
Sciarini Pascal,
Traber Denise
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
swiss political science review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.632
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1662-6370
pISSN - 1424-7755
DOI - 10.1002/j.1662-6370.2010.tb00447.x
Subject(s) - negotiation , federalism , state (computer science) , political science , style (visual arts) , process (computing) , frame (networking) , public administration , cooperative federalism , law and economics , sociology , law , computer science , politics , telecommunications , archaeology , algorithm , history , operating system
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.