Open Access
Foreigners, citizens and the tyrannical edges of the 'Vox Populi' : empirical and normative evidence from Switzerland
Loading...
Files
WP_UPF_Switzerland_tyranny_2017.pdf (1008.48 KB)
Full-text in Open Access
License
Access Rights
Cadmus Permanent Link
Full-text via DOI
ISBN
ISSN
Issue Date
Type of Publication
LC Subject Heading
Other Topic(s)
EUI Research Cluster(s)
Initial version
Published version
Succeeding version
Preceding version
Published version part
Earlier different version
Initial format
Author(s)
Citation
GRITIM-UPF Working Paper; 2017/33
Cite
ARRIGHI, Jean-Thomas, Foreigners, citizens and the tyrannical edges of the ’Vox Populi’ : empirical and normative evidence from Switzerland, GRITIM-UPF Working Paper, 2017/33 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/61824
Abstract
The debate on the tyrannical consequences of direct democratic rule on minority rights is almost as old as democracy itself. Yet, it has regained considerable vigour in recent years, as the ‘plebiscitarian turn’ widely observed in Europe and North America has shaken to the core the very foundations of representative democracy as laid out since 1945. The article examines the issue in the case of immigrant minorities in Switzerland, that concentrates about half of referendums worldwide. It proceeds in two steps. First, based on an original dataset compiling all forty-three referendums and popular initiatives on migration-related issues held in Switzerland at federal level between 1848 and 2017, it examines through a rational-choice institutionalist lens whether direct democratic instruments have contributed to 'expand' or 'restrict' the rights of immigrants. The results point to a significant ‘tyrannical’ effect of direct democracy, both at the ‘agenda-setting’ and ‘decision-making’ stages. The second section takes a normative turn and critically discusses the democratic legitimacy of a political franchise that excludes the very population that is most intimately and immediately coerced by electoral outcomes. It proposes a ‘realist’ reform of the referendum procedure based on the ‘principle of empathy’, the aim of which is to complement the norm of national self-determination underlying the national franchise in Switzerland as well as in most democracies with an objective examination of and due respect for the ‘rights of others’.
Table of Contents
Additional Information
This document is associated with a Creative Common license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/es/)