This book examines the democratic acceptance of spatial planning measures, using Switzerland as a case study. The currently inefficient land use in industrialised countries calls for new spatial planning policies. Yet governments have largely failed to implement innovative policy measures, which may be due to a lack of democratic acceptance. To date, little is known about the democratic acceptance of spatial planning measures. Switzerland offers a promising candidate because of its direct-democratic system, which allows citizens' preferences for specific policy measures to be directly measured. In this work, the democratic acceptance of spatial planning instruments is investigated from various perspectives in the form of original empirical studies, which are embedded in an innovative conceptual framework. It demonstrates that not only spatial planning instruments in general, but also incentive-based instruments in particular, generally enjoy high acceptance. This finding is remarkable, considering the fact that efficient land use instruments have only been marginally implemented. Addressing the needs of both academics and land use practitioners in the private and public sector, the book shows that in order to improve the democratic acceptance of spatial planning measures, attention must be paid to their context, content and the means by which that content is provided.
This book examines the democratic acceptance of spatial planning measures, using Switzerland as a case study. The currently inefficient land use in industrialised countries calls for new spatial planning policies. Yet governments have largely failed to implement innovative policy measures, which may be due to a lack of democratic acceptance. To date, little is known about the democratic acceptance of spatial planning measures. Switzerland offers a promising candidate because of its direct-democratic system, which allows citizens' preferences for specific policy measures to be directly measured.
Sustainable spatial planning has become increasingly important during the last decades. Politics tries to counter land use related challenges such as urban sprawl by the implementation of policy measures. In a direct democracy, the implementation of policy measures requires citizens' acceptance. This paper examines determinants of voters' policy measure acceptance in the area of spatial planning. The study analyses 18 popular votes on spatial planning measures between 1984 and 2008 in Switzerland. A Bayesian multilevel modelling method is used to estimate both determinants at the individual level as well as the contextual level. Results show that the main individual factor for voters in Switzerland to accept spatial planning measures in a broad sense are the party affiliations of voters. Another important factor for the voting decision is being a homeowner. In contrast, whether voters live in urban or rural areas does not influence such voting decisions. At the contextual level, policy measures which contain incentive and market-based instruments have a higher probability to be accepted than bans and rules. Moreover, the degree of organisational capacity and conflict capability of interests concerned seem to influence democratic acceptance of spatial planning measures.
Einführung -- Smartness-Narrative im Bodenseeraum: Evidenz aus einer vergleichenden Fallstudie mit drei Gemeinden -- Ausgestaltung von kantonalen Digitalisierungsstrategien – Eine Bestandsaufnahme -- Digitalisierung und digitale Transformation in den Schweizer Gemeinden – Stand und Entwicklung -- Kritik der Digitalen Verwaltung: Von Mythen, Medien und Mime-sis -- Vom Unterschriften sammeln auf Papier zum E-Collecting: Digitale Transformation der Auslösung von Volksbegehren -- David gegen Goliath im digitalen Zeitalter: Ein Vergleich der wahrgenommenen Sichtbarkeit von Online-Kampagnen kleiner und grosser Akteure im Abstimmungskampf -- Politische Kommunikation im Zeitalter sozialer Medien: Eine Analyse des Twitter Diskurses zur Klimapolitik in der Schweiz -- Wie können Collaborative E-Government Projekte gelingen? Lessons Learned aus zwei Projekten im Kanton Zürich -- Nutzen für BürgerInnen und Verwaltung durch einen Smart Service-orientierten Gestaltungsansatz -- Extended Reality (XR) in der öffentlichen Verwaltung – XR- Grundlagen und Praxisbeispiele -- Digitale Identitäten im Behördenverkehr – eine rechtliche Betrachtung -- Die Tallinn-Prinzipien als Wegbereiter der digitalen Transformation des öffentlichen Sektors in der Schweiz.
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Digitalization has led to an increase in electronic government services and democratic developments. One crucial aspect in the context of e-government for democracies consists of e-voting systems, which enable citizens to vote electronically. The Swiss government recently decided on the nationwide introduction of e-voting systems. One target group, which could particularly benefit from the introduction of e-voting systems, are Swiss nationals living abroad. However, the introduction of e-voting systems entails costs, thus an estimation of the willingness of Swiss nationals abroad to make use of the possibility of voting electronically is central to the introduction of e-voting systems. In November 2017, 596 Swiss citizens living abroad completed a questionnaire addressing their experience with and assessment of e-voting systems. Results yield a very high willingness to use e-voting among the respondents. Swiss nationals living abroad seem to perceive e-voting as being very useful and efficient. In addition, the findings show that concerns about data security seem to be of high importance for potential users of e-voting systems.
The independence of evaluations has gained increasing attention in research. So far, research has mainly focused on evaluators' experiences when confronted with pressure, leading to a restricted view of the complex context in which evaluations take place. Therefore, this article broadens the debate and follows the call by previous studies to pay attention to evaluation clients, which have been identified as the main influencing stakeholders within evaluation processes. The findings of an online survey among Swiss evaluation clients show that most clients have never been told by evaluators that they put the latter under pressure, even though previous studies found that half of the evaluators feel pressured. Nonetheless, clients frequently experience conflicts during evaluations that are often caused by a lack of a common understanding between evaluators and clients. Thus, we conclude that preventive measures are needed to increase the parties' mutual comprehension, and ultimately, the quality of evaluation results.
Lobbying ist in der Schweizer Politik ein immer häufiger anzutreffender Begriff und geniesst einen eher zwei felhaften Ruf. Doch Lobbyismus pauschal als negativ oder gefährlich abzutun, ist zu kurz gegriffen. Im Kontext von Milizparlament und Referendumsdemokratie ist Lobbying viel mehr eine notwendige Bedingung für das Funktionieren von Politik.
Lobbying ist ein vielschichtiges Phänomen. Lobbying bezeichnet die Vertretung von politischen Interessen und die Beeinflussung von politischen Entscheidungsprozessen durch diese Interessen. Dem Begriff des Lobbying liegt gemeinhin eine negative Konnotation zugrunde, was dazu führt, dass sich die direkt betroffenen Akteure, die Lobbyistinnen und Lobbyisten, in der Regel nicht als solche bezeichnen. Auch die im weiteren Sinn betroffenen Akteure, wie in diesem Abschnitt die Parlamentsmitglieder, umgehen diesen Begriff oftmals. So merken Dialer und Richter (2014: 2) vor dem Hintergrund der grossen Spannbreite von Berufsbezeichnungen von EU-Lobbyisten, wie etwa «public affairs manager» oder «policy advisor» an, «[s]ie alle sind Lobbyisten, wollen aber nicht so heißen». Analog dazu stellt Baeriswyl (2005: 45) für den Schweizer Kontext die Vermutung auf, dass «dieses Negativ image (…) mithin ein Grund sein [mag], dass die Schweizer Berufslobbyisten ihren Verband als Schweizerische Public Affairs Gesellschaft SPAG und nicht als Schweizer Lobbyistenverein bezeichnen». Die Vorbehalte gegenüber der Tätigkeit von Lobbyisten und Lobbyistinnen gründen darin, dass damit versteckt erfolgende Kontakte mit dem Ziel der Beeinflussung von Interessenträgerinnen und Interessenträgern assoziiert werden. Dies steht aber im Gegensatz zum Ideal, wonach Demokratie nichts anderes sein soll als «offengelegtes staatliches Handeln» (Tschäni 1984: 71). Der Abschnitt behandelt die Frage, ob und inwieweit Lobbying in der Schweiz Druck auf das schweizerische Parlament ausübt und welche Gefahren oder Chancen von einer solchen organisierten Einflussnahme ausgehen. Lobbying hat in der Schweiz in den vergangenen Jahren an Aufmerksamkeit gewonnen, nachdem es lange sowohl auf der politischen wie auf der wissenschaftlichen Agenda bestenfalls eine untergeordnete Rolle spielte. Ziel dieses Abschnitts ist zum einen, sich dem Lobbying in der Schweizer Politik mit Fokus auf das Bundesparlament anhand bestehender Forschung anzunähern. Zum anderen liegt dem Beitrag eine normative Komponente zugrunde, indem die politische Bedeutung des Lobbyings im Hinblick auf potenzielle Gefahren beurteilt wird. Der Beitrag beginnt mit einer begrifflichen Annäherung an den Begriff «Lobbying» sowie seiner Definition im parlamentarischen Kontext. Im Anschluss daran wird ein Überblick über aktuelle, auf die Schweiz bezogene Forschung zum Thema gegeben. Hierbei werden zudem Besonderheiten des politischen Lobbyings in der Schweiz diskutiert. Dieser Teil bildet das Kernstück des Beitrags und dient als Basis für die anschliessende normative Diskussion über die Relevanz des Lobbyings und darüber, ob und inwieweit vom Lobbying eine Gefahr für die Unabhängigkeit der Politik ausgeht. In diesem Zusammenhang werden Voraussetzungen erwogen, die für ein systemverträgliches Lobbying erfüllt sein müssen. Der Beitrag schliesst mit einem Fazit.
The development of political science in Switzerland in terms of an academic recognition has its origins in the French part of Switzerland in the 1960s to 1980s, followed by the German part. Today, ten institutions in Switzerland offer political science at Bachelors and at Masters level. While in 2'000, only about 2'300 students studied political science in Switzerland this number almost doubled within ten years. One of the main changes in political science education in Switzerland consists in the replacement of the existing degrees of Lizentiat and Diplom by Bachelor- and Master-programmes according to the 'Bologna reform' in the early 2000s, by which Switzerland has pioneered the transformation processes. The first chair in political science was installed in 1959. Currently, there are about 50 full professorships at Swiss Universities. The main research fields of political science consist of international studies, democracy and Swiss politics, although Swiss politics still is considered particularly important in Switzerland due to of its unique political system within Europe such as direct democracy.
Digitisation processes within the public sector have led to an increase in innovative approaches for better service delivery. The umbrella term describing the promotion of better public service delivery by means of information and communication technology (ICT) is e-government. Within the public sector, citizens and their requirements as stakeholders are particularly central. Research shows that citizens are often positive about e-government efforts. What is striking, however, is the consensus regarding the identified citizen concerns towards e-government related initiatives. Study results reveal reservations of the population towards digital e-services or e-government in general are often based on concerns that pertain to data security and data protection. Against the background of the relevance of data protection and data security, it is also noticeable that there is no common understanding in research and practice as to what is meant by the terms. We argue that one reason for the lack of consensus stems from the fact, that data protection and data security is an elusive concept because it can be approached from different perspectives. First, there is a technical perspective which is primarily led by technicians. Second, there is a legal perspective, which is primarily explored by the administration and politicians. Finally, there is the subjective perspective of citizens. The latter is often much less concrete than the other perspectives and is based on intuition rather than facts. Ensuring data security and data protection when implementing e-government initiatives is fundamental and the discussions about technical and legal perspectives are legitimate and important. At present, however, both the technical and legal perspectives fail to adequately address the fears and concerns of the population, which is also caused by a high degree of complexity of the debates in the public arena. The paper therefore aims to help conceptualise data protection and data security from the population point of view by means of an empirical survey. The study is based on an online-survey among citizens from the UK and Switzerland in which they are asked, in a broad sense, what they understand by the concepts of data security and data protection. In a narrower sense, the survey concept to investigate citizen perception of data security and data protection is derived from literature exploring data security and protection from a theoretical, technical and legal perspective. The survey results of the subjective evaluations by the citizens are then compared to the legal and technical perspectives. In a next step, a theoretical concept for data security and data protection from the citizen perspective is derived from the empirical data. Gathering responses from two different countries also allows for an assessment of differences and similarities of the perceptions of citizens with altered political and legal environments. In addition, the data allows to examine whether the understanding of data protection differs along sociodemographic characteristics. The citizen concept of data security and data protection helps to mediate between politics, technology and the population in the discourse of e-government initiatives and their accompanying requirements for data protection and data security.
Sustainable spatial planning strongly depends on efficient policy measures. A successful implementation of efficient policies, in turn, crucially depends on their public acceptance. This paper examines whether the way the public is provided with information on spatial planning policies influences public acceptance. Policy makers employ policy frames to influence voters. In a survey experiment among 644 Swiss participants we test goal framing and attribute framing effects by combining framing theory with a causal model for public policies. We show that policy frames can increase public acceptance of market-based spatial planning policies. Moreover, we find evidence that the framing effect differs for the target group of landowners and argue that their personal involvement makes them respond to specific frames. We conclude that the effects of policy frames on public acceptance crucially depend on personal involvement and that target group populations react to frames differently compared to a less directly affected population.
Literature claims that scientific evidence makes better democracies. This paper analyses whether and which voters choose empirical evidence in the form of policy evaluation results when informing themselves about issue-specific votes. The analysis is based on a split-ballot survey where participants chose media items with different content to make a decision on a specific issue. Results show that voters do indeed choose evidence-based information, especially if their involvement with the issue is high and if they are well educated and that they choose a higher amount of such information if they are also politically engaged. In a setting that fosters political engagement and provides policy-relevant information, the findings imply that voters want to be informed when making a democratic issue choice. Involved and engaged voters might be a solution to sceptics against direct democracy out of fear of uninformed decisions and post-factual populism.
Das Kapitel vermittelt eine Einführung in die Verkehrs- und Infrastrukturpolitik aus einer Kombination der politikwissenschaftlichen und wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Perspektive heraus. Im Zentrum dieses Kapitels stehen die Klärung der Bedeutung von Verkehrspolitik als Public Policy sowie die Darlegung der Gemeinsamkeit zwischen dem Anliegen der Politik- und Wirtschaftswissenschaft, gesellschaftliche Probleme zu lösen. Verschiedene Beispiele aus der Verkehrs- und Infrastrukturpolitik werden herangezogen, um die Komplementarität zwischen beiden Disziplinen zu verdeutlichen und die Wirkungsmechanismen hinter gesellschaftlichen Problemen, die durch Verkehr entstehen, zu veranschaulichen.
Stützen sich Stimmbürgerinnen und Stimmbürger vor Abstimmungen auf wissenschaftliche Fakten oder vertrauen sie der Meinung anderer? Und welche Eigenschaften von Personen begünstigen die Wahl von wissenschaftlichen Fakten? Wir haben diese Fragen mittels einer Befragung mit Studieren den untersucht: Vier von fünf Personen informierten sich durch wissenschaftlich belegte Fakten, um einen Entscheid zu treffen. Die Meinung anderer bildete nur selten eine Entscheidungsgrundlage.
