The Strategic Context

Abstract

Any political choice and any campaign are embedded in a given context. As Walder (2006: 713) points out, ‘a theory about political choice — or any theory about politics — can be no more valid than its claims about the contexts within which these choices are made.’ The understanding of the political context is therefore of crucial importance. Since I am proposing to explore the strategies adopted by political actors in direct-democratic campaigns, I will account for the environmental characteristics of theses campaigns. Basically, direct-democratic campaigns consist of three aspects: the rules of the game, the battlefields, and the players. In other words, direct-democratic campaigns take place in institutional and issue-specific contexts, which are mediated by the political elites. Consequently, this chapter proceeds in three steps. First, I will present the direct-democratic context of Switzerland by focusing on both formal and informal rules. Second, I will turn to the general structuration of the choice by setting out the systems of interest intermediation (parties, interest associations) as well as the particular role played by the federal government. Third, I will explore the four issue-specific contexts (immigration, health politics, welfare state, and economic liberalism) in which the eight campaigns under scrutiny take place.