Switzerland

Datasets

Datasets are arranged by type. Click on a dataset name to expand its description (including date range) as well as to download a .csv of current data and a .pdf codebook that documents included variables. For information on how to cite this data please visit our how to cite page. 

Media

• Media

  This dataset captures issue attention in the Swiss media. Data collection was based on the articles of the frontpage of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung for the period 1995-2003. Topics were assigned on the basis of the articles’ full text. Information on whether the article focused on international or cantonal and local news is also included. Character encoding is UTF-8.

  
  9896 observations spanning the years 1995 to 2003
  download dataset   download codebook

Parliamentary & Legislative

• Federal Reports

  This dataset captures issue attention by the Swiss federal government (FederalCouncil). The dataset is based on the reports (i.e. “Message du Conseil fédéral” or “Botschaft des Bundesrates”) accompanying bills submitted by the government to the Parliament. The summaries included at the beginning of each report were used to assign topic codes. Reports published in the weekly editions of the “Federal Gazzette” between 1978-2008 are included. Character encoding is UTF-8.

  
  1951 observations spanning the years 1978 to 2008
  download dataset   download codebook
• Legislation

  This dataset captures issue attention in Swiss legislative production at the federal level. The dataset is based on the legislative acts subject to direct democracy in the period 1978-2008. This includes texts voted by Parliament and subject to optional or mandatory renferendum, as well as constitutional amendments and popular initiatives subject to a popular vote. The data includes information on the type of legislation (i.e. constitutional amendment, federallaw, popular initiative, etc.) and on whether the legislative act was eventually enacted following the direct democracy stage.

  
  1420 observations spanning the years 1978 to 2008
  download dataset   download codebook

Public Opinion & Interest Groups

• Direct Democracy Votes

  This dataset captures issue attention in Swiss direct democracy at the federal level. The dataset covers popular votes celebrated between 1848-2014. Dataincludes issue topic, the type of vote (e.g. referendum, popular initiative) and the outcome of the vote. The data was gathered by the Swiss Comparative Agendas Team on the basis of the information made available by Swissvotes and the Centre for Research on Direct Democracy (c2d). Character encoding isUTF-8.

  
  605 observations spanning the years 1848 to 2014
  download dataset   download codebook

Staff

Frédéric Varone

Title: Professor
Institution(s): University of Geneva

Frédéric Varone is Professor of Public Policy at the Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva. His research interests include comparative public policy, programme evaluation and interest groups.

CAP related Research Projects:

- Re-parliamentarization? A quantitative assessment of the Swiss Parliament's legislative function

- Lobbying, litigation and direct democracy: Comparing advocacy strategies of interest groups in Switzerland and California

- The Politics of Attention: West European politics in times of change

 

Pascal Sciarini

Title: Professor
Institution(s): University of Geneva

Pascal Sciarini is Professor of Swiss and Comparative politics at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. His main research topics are decision-making processes, direct democracy, Europeanization and political behavior. His work on these topics has appeared in several journals. His most recent book, which he co-authored with Manuel Fischer and Denise Traber, is Political Decision-making in Switzerland: The consensus model under pressure, Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2015). He is also co-editor of the Handbook of Swiss politics, Zurich: NZZ Libro (2014).

Anke Tresch

Title: SNSF Research Professor
Institution(s): University of Lausanne

Anke Tresch is a SNSF Research Professor in the Institute of Political, Historic and International Studies at the University of Lausanne, where she directs a research project on "Party strategies and the dynamics of electoral competition in multiparty democracies" (2014-2018). She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Zurich in 2007. Her research combines interests in media and politics, political communication, voting behavior, and the public sphere.

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/anketresch/home

Roy Gava

Title: Lecturer
Institution(s): University of Geneva

Roy Gava is Lecturer and post-doc researcher at the Department of Political Science and International Relations. His research interests include comparative public policy, financial regulation and internationalization.

Explore Policy Trends

Click to explore policy trends with Switzerland pre-selected. The Trends tool allows for policy comparisons across governing institutions and countries.

The Swiss Policy Agendas team includes Roy Gava, Pascal Sciarini and Frédéric Varone at the University of Geneva and Anke Tresch at the University of Lausanne.

Principal Investigator: Pascal Sciarini and Frédéric Varone
Location: University of Geneva
Downloadable Data Series: 4
Time Span: 1848-2014
Total Observations: 13,872

Sponsoring Institutions

The following CAP related projects were funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation:

• Party strategies and the dynamics of electoral competition in multiparty democracies
• Re-parliamentarization? A quantitative assessment of the Swiss Parliament's legislative function
• Lobbying, litigation and direct democracy: Comparing advocacy strategies of interest groups in Switzerland and California
• The mediatization of political decision-making in Switzerland
• The Politics of Attention: West European politics in times of change

Swiss Policy Agendas