Blog #7

Blog 7- Duverger’s Law

            Switzerland has a political system that is unique and different from any other system in the world.  Their processes for electing people are very different from the United States and pretty different then most countries around the world.  The district magnitude, or how many seats are allotted for each electoral district is proportional to the size of the district.  There are 26 districts, called cantons in Switzerland (Switzerland 1).  The sizes of the cantons vary so they elect anywhere from 1 to 35 members for the National Council (Switzerland 2).  In Switzerland’s multi-member constituencies, they use a system of proportional representation called the Haganbach-Bischoff method, where the remaining seats are distributed according to the highest averages (Switzerland Electoral Rules 1).  This method is very similar to the D’Hondt method.  Unlike other European countries, Switzerland has no threshold, making it a true proportional system (Switzerland 1).  However, due to the many cantons, it makes it hard for small parties to get a seat in the house, when it would be easier if the country’s votes were counted as a whole.  In addition, Switzerland has five single-member constituencies that operate through a single majority system.  In some of the voting areas, voting in mandatory, with a small fine if a person doesn’t vote (Switzerland Electoral Rules 1).

         When voting is Switzerland, a citizen is given a list of candidates that are listed in party lists by alphabetic order (Switzerland 1).  The voter can choose to leave the candidate’s name on the list, put the name on the list a second time, or take the candidate off the list all together.  The voter could also choose to not make any changes at all to the party list (Switzerland 2).  Citizens even have the opportunity to write in candidates from other parties and divide the vote in that way between parties.  The only condition is that their list not include more names then seats in that specific canton.  This makes the list structure very open and keeps the party discipline and control low.

Party Name	Seats	Proportion
Swiss People’s Party	54	.27
Social Democratic	46	.23
FDP The Liberals	30	.15
Christian Democratic People’s Party	28	.14
Green Party	15	.075
Conservative Democratic Party	9	.045
Green Liberal Party	12	.06
Evangelical People’s Party	2	.01
Ticino League	2	.01
Geneva Citizen’s movement	1	.005
Christian Social Party	1	.005

However, despite the fact that they operate differently then other countries, they still support the theory in Duverger’s Law, that the effective number of parties is a function of electoral rules.  Switzerland runs through a proportional system, so according to Duverger’s Law, they should have more then two effective parties.  In the most recent election, Switzerland had 11 different parties represented with at least one seat in the National Council, which is the lower chamber of Switzerland’s legislature (Elections in Switzerland, 1).  When calculating out the number of effective parties with the N_eff formula (see table for parties, seats, and proportions), the result was 5.54 effective parties, therefore supporting Durverger’s law.  Despite the fact that Switzerland is unique in their electoral rules and voting, they support and follow Durverger’s law. 

Work Cited

“Elections in Switzerland.” Wikipedia.  Wikipedia.  4 May 2012.  Web. 1 Nov 2012. 

“Switzerland Electoral Rules.” IPU Parline Database.  Inter-Parliamentary Union.  2012.  Web.  Nov 1 2012. 

 “Switzerland.”  The Electoral Knowledge Network.  Ace Project.  2012.  Web.  1 Nov 2012.