2 National vs. cantonal level
referendum, Centre for Research on Direct Democracy (C2D), direct democracy, report, worldwide
This section aims to provides a comparison of the national and subnational (cantonal) level of referendums and ballot dates in Switzerland.
2.1 Swiss referendums and ballot dates per decade by administrative level
Figure 2.1 provides a detailed breakdown of the number of Swiss referendums and ballot dates per decade, categorized by the national and cantonal level.
Panel (a) displays the trend of national referendums over time. The number of national referendums remained relatively low until after 1950, when there was a marked increase. This upward trend continued through the 1970s and peaked in the 1990s. Since then, the number of national referendums has declined somewhat, with a total of 672 referendums held at the national level since 1870.
Panel (b) illustrates subnational referendums. Data collection begins in 1970, and since then, subnational referendums have been consistently more frequent than national referendums, peaking with over 1400 referendums during the 1980s. A gradual decrease can be seen after that. Nonetheless, subnational referendums remain a significant part of Switzerland’s political process, with a total of 6,892 referendums held since 1970.
Panel (c) focuses on national ballot dates, which follow a similar trend to the national referendums. However, there does not seem to be a clear peak. Rather, the first two decades of the 21st century still saw a considerable number of national direct democratic events, with over 30 ballot dates within this decade.
Panel (d) highlights subnational ballot dates. The data, available since 1970, shows that subnational ballot dates were most frequent around the 1970s and 1980s, with nearly 550 ballot dates per decade. However, a decline set in after these two decades, corresponding with the decrease in subnational referendums, although the reduction is attenuated.
Overall, Figure 2.1 demonstrates the strong role of both national and subnational levels in the Swiss referendum system. However, a trend of declining activity has been observed at both levels, despite the long-standing tradition of direct democracy.
2.2 Cantons by number of referendums
As Figure 2.2 shows, the canton with the most cantonal referendums since 1970 is Zurich, which is also the largest canton by population. It is followed by the smaller canton of Glarus. These two cantons even had more referendums than on the national level. Genevea is the only canton from the French-speaking part of Switzerland in the top-ten. This observation is nothing new, as previous studies found that direct democracy plays a larger role in the German-speaking part of Switzerland as the institutions are more developed (Kriesi and Baglioni 2003, 7). Overall, it can be seen that with the exception of two cantons, the subnational entities were less active than the national level.
2.3 Ballot dates per year since 1970
Figure 2.3 depicts the evolution of referendums at the national and subnational levels in Switzerland, with 1970 serving as the baseline year. In this graph, the number of referendums in 1970 is indexed to 100%, and the lines track how the count of referendums has changed over time relative to this baseline.
The purple line represents national referendums, while the yellow line shows subnational (cantonal) referendums. The chart reveals that the national number of referendums is significantly more volatile than the subnational number. This higher volatility is largely due to the fact that the national line represents just one entity — Switzerland as a whole — so a year with few referendums (two, for example) causes sharp movements in the index. By contrast, the subnational number reflects the combined total of 26 cantons, which smooths out the fluctuations, leading to a more stable trend line.
Particularly the subnational trend line shows a slight downward movement in the most recent years, indicating the decrease in the frequency of referendums relative to 1970 that was observed before. However, the overall patterns suggest that while national referendums are subject to more pronounced fluctuations, subnational referendums benefit from the aggregation of cantonal activity, leading to a greater overall stability.
2.4 Ballot dates in cantons since 1970
Figure 2.4 essentially depicts the disaggregated components of the yellow line in Figure 2.3, i.e. the number of cantonal referendums per year across 26 Swiss cantons since 1970. This figure allows to track absolute changes in the frequency of ballot dates over time in each canton. Some cantons see highly variable numbers of referendums each year, while others demonstrate more steady trends, indicating the varying political and legal dynamics at the cantonal level in Switzerland.