EU referendums in context: What can we learn from the Swiss case?
| Author | Eva Thomann,Fritz Sager,Eva G. Heidbreder,Isabelle Stadelmann‐Steffen |
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12566 |
SYMPOSIUM ARTICLE
EU referendums in context: What can we learn
from the Swiss case?
Eva G. Heidbreder
1
| Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen
2
| Eva Thomann
3
|
Fritz Sager
4
1
Institute for Social Sciences and History,
Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg,
Magdeburg, Germany
2
Institute for Political Science, University of
Bern, Bern, Switzerland
3
Department of Politics, University of Exeter,
Exeter, UK
4
Center of Competence for Public
Management, University of Bern, Bern,
Switzerland
Correspondence
Eva G. Heidbreder, Institute for Social Sciences
and History, Otto-von-Guericke University
Magdeburg, Zschokkestr. 32, 39104
Magdeburg, Germany.
Email: eva.heidbreder@ovgu.de
The rising number of referendums on EU matters, such as the
Brexit and the Catalonian independence votes, highlight the
increasing importance of referendums as a problem-solving mecha-
nism in the EU. We argue that the Swiss case provides essential
insights into understanding the dynamics behind referendums,
which are often lacking when referendums are called for in the
EU. Referendums in EU member states on EU matters differ sub-
stantially from those in the Swiss context. Nevertheless, propo-
nents of more direct democratic decision-making regularly cite the
Swiss example. Our systematic analysis of why referendums are
called, how they unfold and their effects in the EU and Switzerland
reveals that the EU polity lacks the crucial conditions that embed
direct democracy within the wider political and institutional system.
The comparative perspective offers fundamental insights into the
preconditions required for direct democracy to function and its lim-
itations in the EU.
1|INTRODUCTION
This Symposium explores the problem-solving capacities of multilevel systems (Ege 2019; Tosun et al. 2019; Trein
et al. 2019). One aspect of this question is the long-standing problem of the European Union’s (EU) alleged demo-
cratic deficit. An intensely discussed potential cure in political and academic circles is direct democratic policy-making
in the form of referendums as national votes (‘EU referendums’) or as future EU-wide votes (Hobolt 2006, 2009;
Mendez et al. 2014). Direct democracy is popular among citizens across Europe: a vast majority thinks that referen-
dums are important for democracy (European Social Survey Round 6, 2012). Schuck and de Vreese (2015, p. 159)
state that ‘in general, citizens in Western representative democracies are supportive of referendums as a supplement
to a system in which representatives are elected’. However, the Brexit referendum in particular raises concerns about
the procedural weaknesses of EU referendums. The Brexit referendum represents an extreme case of EU referendum
use with respect to expected and actual problem-solving capacity. First, whereas previous EU referendums in other
member states treated questions of accession or the EU’s institutional development, the Brexit referendum was the
Received: 29 January 2018 Revised: 9 October 2018 Accepted: 13 October 2018
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12566
370 © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm Public Administration. 2019;97:370–383.
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