Social movements and direct democracy in Switzerland

Taking a political process approach to the study of social movements, we analyze the impact of the availability of direct democratic institutions on the action repertory of Swiss social movements. Comparing social movements in the German and the Latin parts of the country, we show that the availability of direct‐democratic instruments induces most social movements to use them. This has a moderating impact on their action repertory. However, we have to relativize this general result in two ways. On the one hand, direct‐democratic institutions are selective to the extent that they favour the mobilization of certain types of movements at the expense of others. On the other hand, very radical movements such as counter‐cultural movements may refuse to rely on this type of instrument altogether. We also note that in a polity with an important direct‐democratic opening, such movements have little legitimacy and are likely to be less successful than in a polity where no such opening exists at all, or where it provides only a limited access to the political system.