Skip to main content
Log in

How to please voters without alienating friends? Parties, organised interests and advocacy coalitions in Swiss immigration policy

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

This article analyses how and why political parties adopt more restrictive migration policy positions by using Paul Sabatier’s Advocacy Coalition Framework. While a number of studies have emphasised electoral factors alone to explain this anti-immigration turn, this article argues that policies and cooperation constraints with organised interests are also fundamental factors to understand change in party positions about immigration policy. Using the Swiss case as an empirical application, the article shows how parties have sought to accommodate changing voter preferences with longstanding connections with organised interests. Centre-right parties have turned to an ever more restrictive stance on selective aspects of immigration policy (third-country migration, asylum, access to citizenship), however without challenging EU free movement so central for employers. Social Democrats have had to negotiate between the preferences of their middle-class voters keen on multiculturalism and those of trade unions whose base pushes for immigration control.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Afonso, A. (2005) When the export of social problems is no longer possible: Immigration policies and unemployment in Switzerland. Social Policy & Administration 39 (6): 653–668.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Afonso, A. (2007) Policy change and the politics of expertise. Economic ideas and immigration control reforms in Switzerland. Swiss Political Science Review 13 (1): 1–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Afonso, A. (2013) Social Concertation in Times of Austerity. European Integration and the Politics of Labour Market Reforms in Austria and Switzerland. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Akkerman, T. (2012) Immigration policy and electoral competition in Western Europe. Party Politics, advance online publication doi: 10.1177/1354068812462928.

  • Alonso, S. and Da Fonseca, S. (2012) Immigration, left and right. Party Politics 18 (6): 865–884.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alonso, X. (2012) Le PS commet une grave erreur sur la politique pigratoire. Le Matin 3 April.

  • Balch, A. (2010) Economic migration and the politics of hospitality in Spain: Ideas and policy change. Politics & Policy 38 (5): 1037–1065.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bale, T. (2003) Cinderella and her ugly sisters: The mainstream and extreme right in Europe’s bipolarising party systems. West European Politics 26 (3): 67–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bale, T. (2008) Turning round the telescope. Centre-right parties and immigration and integration policy in Europe. Journal of European Public Policy 15 (3): 315–330.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bale, T., Gree-Pedersen, C., Krouwel, A., Luther, KR. and Sitter, N. (2010) If you can’t beat them, join them? Explaining social democratic responses to the challenge from the populist radical right in western Europe. Political Studies 58 (3): 410–426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cattacin, S. (1987) Neokorporatismus in der Schweiz: Die Fremdarbeiterpolitik. Zürich, Switzerland: Forschungsstelle für Politische Wissenschaft.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conseil Fédéral (2002) Message concernant la loi sur les étrangers. Berne, Germany: Administration Fédérale.

  • Cornelius, W.A. (2004) Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dhima, G. (1991) Politische Ökonomie des Schweizerischen Ausländerregelung. Zurich, Switzerland: Rüegger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engeli, I. and Tresch, A. (2005) Analyse des votations fédérales du 5 juin 2005. Genève: GFS/Université de Genève (Vox Analysis).

  • Fischer, A., Nicolet, S. and Sciarini, P. (2002) Europeanisation of non-EU countries: The case of Swiss immigration policy towards the EU. West European Politics 25 (4): 143–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flückiger, Y. (1992) La politique suisse en matière d’immigration. In: B. Bürgenmeier (ed.) Main d’oeuvre étrangère: Une analyse de l’Economie Suisse. Paris, France: Economica, pp. 17–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fluckiger, Y. (1998) The labour Market in Switzerland: The end of a special case? International Journal of Manpower 19 (6): 369–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forster, C. (2012) Müller Bringt Den Freisinn Näher an Die Basis. Neue Zürcher Zeitung 24 October.

  • Graffenried, V. and Pétignat, Y. (2012) Christian Levrat: ‘le PS est pour une Immigration Régulée’. Le Temps 3 September.

  • Karol, D. (2009) Party Position Change in American Politics: Coalition Management. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kriesi, H. and Trechsel, A.H. (2008) The Politics of Switzerland: Continuity and Change in a Consensus Democracy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kübler, D. (2007) Understanding the recent expansion of Swiss family policy: An idea-centred approach. Journal of Social Policy 36 (2): 217–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oesch, D. and Rennwald, L. (2010) The class basis of Switzerland’s cleavage between the new left and the populist right. Swiss Political Science Review 16 (3): 343–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parti Socialiste Suisse (2012) Pour une politique migratoire globale et cohérente. Papier de position. Bern, Switzerland: Parti Socialiste Suisse.

  • Petignat, Y. (2012) Le PS ouvre un débat délicat sur les étrangers. Le Temps 7 January.

  • Piguet, E. (2004) L’immigration en Suisse. 50 ans d’entrouverture. Lausanne, Switzerland: PPUR.

    Google Scholar 

  • Radicaux-Libéraux, P.L.R.L. (2011) Pour Un Contrôle Pragmatique De L’immigration En Adéquation Avec Les Besoins De La Suisse. Bern, Switzerland: Papier de positions PLR.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabatier, P.A. and Jenkins-Smith, H. (1999) The advocacy coalition framework: An assessment. In: P.A. Sabatier (ed.) Theories of the Policy Process. Boulder, CO: Westview, Press 117–159.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabatier, P.A. and Weible, C. (2007) The advocacy coalition framework: Innovations and clarifications. In: P.A. Sabatier (ed.) Theories of the Policy Process, 2nd edn. Boulder, CO: Westview, Press 189–222.

    Google Scholar 

  • SECO (2011) Mise en oeuvre des mesures d’accompagnement à la libre circulation des personnes Suisse – Enion Européenne (01.01. – 31.12.2010). Bern, Switzerland: State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.

  • Skenderovic, D. (2009) The Radical Right in Switzerland: Continuity and Change. New York: Berghahn Books 1945–2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swiss Federal Statistics Office (2012) Population résidante permanente étrangère selon la nationalité, http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/fr/index/themen/01/07/blank/key/01/01.html, accessed 19 May 2014.

  • Van Spanje, J. (2010) Contagious parties. Party Politics 16 (5): 563–586.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vasileva, K. (2012) Statistics in focus 31: Nearly two-thirds of the foreigners living in EU member states are citizens of countries outside the EU-27. Brussels, Belgium: Eurostat.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vatter, A. (2008) Vom Extremtyp zum Normalfall? Die Schweizerische Konsensusdemokratie im Wandel: Eine Re-analyse von Lijpharts Studie für die Schweiz von 1997 bis 2007. Swiss Political Science Review 14 (1): 1–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeller, R. (2012) Die Genossen Im Dilemma. Neue Zürcher Zeitung 1 December.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Afonso, A. How to please voters without alienating friends? Parties, organised interests and advocacy coalitions in Swiss immigration policy. Comp Eur Polit 12, 568–583 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2014.20

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2014.20

Keywords

Navigation