Suchergebnisse

The question of whether global & regional integration processes will render Switzerland more amenable to European regional integration is addressed. It is contended that Switzerland's linguistic diversity has historically been characterized by relative harmony; institutional features of the Swiss federal political system that contributed to peaceful relations between groups that speak different languages are highlighted, eg, the full participation of Swiss cantons in federal politics. Nevertheless, a strong correlation between the increased tension between different language groups & global & regional integration processes is noted. Indeed, it is speculated that globalization & regionalization could encourage cantons that are composed predominantly of French-, German-, or Italian-speakers to pursue greater political autonomy. It is speculated that global governance schemes based on Harvey Lazar et al.'s (2003) cyberwave & shared governance scenarios would best preserve Swiss federalism. 12 References. J. W. Parker

Religious conflicts between Catholics & Protestants have almost completely vanished from Swiss politics. It is plausible that consociational practices have contributed to this development. The language issue, on the other hand, has gained salience although in this respect the Swiss attempt to practice consociationalism more carefully than ever before. What has made consociationalism between the two major language groups more difficult in recent times is the tendency of French & German speakers to see the identity of Switzerland in a different light. If conflicts between German & French speakers deal with language per se, they can be more easily dealt with in a consociational way than if language is only a marker for different views of the role of Switzerland in Europe & the world at large. 6 References. Adapted from the source document.

A framework is presented within which one can study how variation in the policy decision process may influence variation in policy outcome. This framework may work best if the units of analysis are not entire countries but specific issues. These issues can be compared both within & among countries. Focus is on energy issues from 1973 to the present in the US & 6 European countries. Two dimensions are examined relative to policy outcome: the extents to which the demands of various societal groups are fulfilled, & to which the outcome is challenged by further actions. For the decision process, a large number of decision paths are distinguished. For the development of the theory it is assumed that decisionmakers try to maximize the values of office seeking, policy goals, & system maintenance, & to minimize the time they invest in a particular decision process. 5 Figures, 8 References. AA.

A report of a study by participant observation of the decision-making process in the Free-Democratic Party in the Berne Canton in Switzerland from Jan 1969 to Sep 1970. In May 1970 the parliament of the Berne Canton was elected. It is investigated whether the time distance to election day has any influence on the decision-making process in the Free-Democratic Party. The starting hyp's are: (1) The more the decision-makers anticipate the reactions of the voters, the more they anticipate that the result of the election will change their balance of rewards & punishments in a positive or negative way. (2) The more the decision-makers anticipate that the result of the election will change their balance of rewards & punishments in a positive or negative way, (a) the more they perceive their pol'al role as important, (b) the more they perceive their pol'al role as depending on the result of elections, (c) the more they anticipate that the next election could change their pol'al role, & (d) the more they perceive their pol'al party as an important group of reference. Further hyp's deal with the question of whether the time distance to election day has a conservative or a progressive influence on the decision-making process. Because the coding of the data is still in progress, the paper presents only the preliminary hyp's without any data. However, the hyp's are discussed re their relevance for democratic theory. AA.

An attempt to link theories on the level of pol'al systems with theories on the level of decision making processes. On the system level hyp's are formulated about the connection between the predominant pattern of conflict resolution & the degree of democratic stability in subculturally segmented pol'al systems. On the level of decision making processes an attempt is made to find out the conditions on which it depends that pol'al conflicts are regulated by the principle of amicable agreement or by the majority principle. The 2 theoretical levels are linked by introducing the independent variables of a conflict resolution by amicable agreement as intervening variables in the hyp's on the system level. The empirical bases for the res on the level of decision making processes are diff case studies undertaken in Switzerland with the method of participant observation. The hyp's on the system level shall be tested by defining the Swiss cantons as the system level. Hopefully it will be possible later on to also test the hyp's for nat'l systems. The whole res is still going on so that it is not yet possible to say to what extent the hyp's are confirmed. AA.