The silent reform of Swiss federalism: The new constitutional articles on education

Abstract

This article examines the decision-making process leading to the new constitutional articles on education in Switzerland. It analyzes how actors from both state levels (Confederation and cantons) could reach consensus in a process that was prone to a "joint-decision trap". To that end, we hypothesize which factors may be conducive to a "problem-solving" style of policy-making in a compulsory negotiation system. Rich empirical material from various sources supports our theoretical arguments: We show that shared beliefs and a common frame of reference, the procedural separation between constitutional and distributional issues, neutral brokers, and informal structures were all beneficial to the success of the reform project. © (2010) Swiss Political Science Review.