For once, most of the political commentators were unanimous. As the Federal Assembly in December left four years ago, the SVP almost without any discussion of a second Federal Council seat, it was said far and wide: at last the spell is prepared the formula again. After years of Back and Forth, the old peace and stability seemed to be back to the Swiss political system in the area.
What a mistake.
Just four years later, have shifted the political balance of power so radically that the debate has flared up once again in all its ferocity. It was “time, a “new magic formula” to think”, writes the NZZ and repeated only the old ways of thinking error: if the still celebrated the distribution of seats must be put back into question, then it’s not about the search for a “new magic formula”. Then there is the principle of the “magic formula” that is on its way out.
The desire to change, on the counter-expensive type, which can be observed since several years in all the Western democracies, the elections of 2019 in full force, the deliberate, Switzerland recorded. Especially those who are now demanding that the Greens would have to confirm their results in other elections, in order to earn a seat in the government, have not understood, what’s happening here.
The political environment has become so mobile that any new, long-term magic formula is doomed to Failure.
not power cartel of the Established
Typically there was in 1959, when the first Version of the magic formula has been established, the positive concept even. Also about an amicable settlement did not take place at that time, on a distribution key. The FDP had to contend vehemently against it, with three Seats secured supremacy in the Federal Council to submit. The magic formula of the distribution key of 1959 was, as in the following decades, the strength of the Federal Council parties from election to election, almost one percent was confirmed.
Is against the “long-term Seating warranty”: political scientist and Director of the Forschungsstelle Sotomo. Photo: Christian Beutler (Keystone)
Creeping to the formula solidified, however, to a power cartel of the Established that it had established with their respective share of the pie easily.
The frontal attack of Blochers SVP to the civil competitor after 1992, brought this antitrust for the first time, to falter. The old Boss of the Lust in the cartel flashes on break still, his party, however, has long shape Like found on the newly formatted cartel with the other two seat parties, the FDP and the SP.
continued adaptation to the changing conditions
The green forces have cut off in this year’s elections excellent, and include, if, exactly in this legislature, after the elections in the government. This can and should be done, however, without long-term seat warranty. Finally, it is not about the rooms of a new cartel. At the next election the cards will be mixed again in new elections that are to be there in the end. Whether the green flight then continues and the centre-left is still so strong, we do not know.
the Lessons of The failed restoration of the magic formula are simple: We do not come today, but after each election, the composition of the Government to renegotiate. It is not just the strength of individual parties, but also a question of whether the government reasonably equivalent to the balance of Forces in the elected Parliament. All of this is far more important than the personal life planning of the acting magistrates.
survey
seats on the Federal Council after each election to re-distribute: What do you think of Hermann’s proposal?
I Think it’s good to get away with the magic formula.
not the point, the magic formula has proven successful.
Vote
I Think it’s good to get away with the magic formula.
76.1%
not at all, the magic formula has proven successful.
23.9%
552 votes
I Think it’s good to get away with the magic formula.
76.1%
not at all, the magic formula has proven successful.
23.9%
552 votes
Negotiate The new, and do not Adapt to the changed conditions after each election is untypical of Switzerland, and it is not endangered and certainly the political stability of the country, as is claimed by the defenders of the power cartel consisting of FDP, SP and SVP in unholy Alliance.
It is in these adjustments, no more and no less than the essence of democracy.
Created: 29.10.2019, 10:52 PM
