IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v10y2009i4p456-481.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Two-Level Analysis of the Determinants of Direct Democratic Choices in European, Immigration and Foreign Policy in Switzerland

Author

Listed:
  • Pascal Sciarini

    (University of Geneva, Switzerland, pascal.sciarini@unige.ch)

  • Anke Tresch

    (University of Geneva, Switzerland, anke.tresch@unige.ch)

Abstract

This article employs a unique data set — covering 25 popular votes on foreign, European and immigration/asylum policy held between 1992 and 2006 in Switzerland — in order to examine the conditional impact of context upon utilitarian, cultural, political and cognitive determinants of individual attitudes toward international openness. Our results reveal clear patterns of cross-level interactions between individual determinants and the project-related context of the vote. Thus, although party cues and political competence have a strong impact on individuals’ support for international openness, this impact is substantially mediated by the type of coalition that is operating within the party elite. Similarly, subjective utilitarian and cultural considerations influence the voters’ decision in interaction with the content of the proposal submitted to the voters as well as with the framing of the voting campaign.

Suggested Citation

  • Pascal Sciarini & Anke Tresch, 2009. "A Two-Level Analysis of the Determinants of Direct Democratic Choices in European, Immigration and Foreign Policy in Switzerland," European Union Politics, , vol. 10(4), pages 456-481, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:10:y:2009:i:4:p:456-481
    DOI: 10.1177/1465116509346388
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1465116509346388
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1465116509346388?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jones, K. & Johnston, R. J. & Pattie, C. J., 1992. "People, Places and Regions: Exploring the Use of Multi-Level Modelling in the Analysis of Electoral Data," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 343-380, July.
    2. Pascal Sciarini & Ola Listhaug, 1997. "Single Cases or a Unique Pair? The Swiss and Norwegian ‘No’ to Europe," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 407-438, September.
    3. Sides, John & Citrin, Jack, 2007. "European Opinion About Immigration: The Role of Identities, Interests and Information," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(3), pages 477-504, July.
    4. Matthew Gabel & Kenneth Scheve, 2007. "Estimating the Effect of Elite Communications on Public Opinion Using Instrumental Variables," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(4), pages 1013-1028, October.
    5. Kenneth F. Scheve & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2001. "Labor Market Competition And Individual Preferences Over Immigration Policy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(1), pages 133-145, February.
    6. Eichenberg, Richard C. & Dalton, Russell J., 1993. "Europeans and the European Community: the dynamics of public support for European integration," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(4), pages 507-534, October.
    7. Ron Johnston & Kelvyn Jones & Carol Propper & Simon Burgess, 2007. "Region, Local Context, and Voting at the 1997 General Election in England," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(3), pages 640-654, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniele, Gianmarco & Geys, Benny, 2012. "Public support for institutionalised solidarity: Europeans' reaction to the establishment of eurobonds," Discussion Papers, Research Professorship & Project "The Future of Fiscal Federalism" SP II 2012-112, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    2. Adam William Chalmers & Lisa Maria Dellmuth, 2015. "Fiscal redistribution and public support for European integration," European Union Politics, , vol. 16(3), pages 386-407, September.
    3. Bloemraad, Irene & Voss, Kim & Silva, Fabiana, 2014. "Framing the Immigrant Movement as about Rights, Family, or Economics: Which Appeals Resonate and for Whom?," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt3b32w33p, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    4. Salomon, Katja, 2020. "Dynamics of immigrant resentment in Europe," Discussion Papers, Presidential Department P 2020-002, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    5. Marfouk, Abdeslam, 2016. "I’m Neither Racist nor Xenophobic, but: Dissecting European Attitudes towards a Ban on Muslims’ Immigration," MPRA Paper 79747, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. H鲩court & Spielvogel, 2014. "Beliefs, media exposure and policy preferences on immigration: evidence from Europe," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 225-239, January.
    7. Claudia N. Avellaneda & Johabed G. Olvera, 2018. "Chief executives’ approval of immigrants: Evidence from a survey experiment of 101 Latin American and Caribbean mayors," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 1(1).
    8. Deole, Sumit S. & Huang, Yue, 2020. "Suffering and prejudice: Do negative emotions predict immigration concerns?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 644, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Boeri, Tito & Gamalerio, Matteo & Morelli, Massimo & Negri, Margherita, 2023. "Pay-As-They-Get-In: Attitudes Towards Migrants and Pension Systems," IZA Discussion Papers 15989, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Mª Ángeles Cea D’Ancona, 2016. "Immigration as a Threat: Explaining the Changing Pattern of Xenophobia in Spain," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 569-591, May.
    11. Timothy J. Hatton, 2015. "Asylum Policy in the EU: the Case for Deeper Integration," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 61(3-4), pages 605-637.
    12. Facchini, Giovanni & Hatton, Timothy J. & Steinhardt, Max F., 2024. "Opening Heaven’s Door: Public Opinion and Congressional Votes on the 1965 Immigration Act," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 84(1), pages 232-270, March.
    13. Roxana-Otilia-Sonia Hritcu, 2015. "Multilevel Models: Conceptual Framework and Applicability," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 11(5), pages 72-83, October.
    14. John Curtice, 2017. "Why Leave Won the UK's EU Referendum," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55, pages 19-37, September.
    15. Helbling, Marc & Traunmüller, Richard, 2020. "What is Islamophobia? Disentangling Citizens’ Feelings Toward Ethnicity, Religion and Religiosity Using a Survey Experiment," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 50(3), pages 811-828.
    16. Koukal, Anna Maria & Schafer, Patricia & Eichenberger, Reiner, 2021. "Enfranchising non-citizens: What drives natives’ willingness to share power?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 1088-1108.
    17. Louis Jaeck, 2022. "Political economy of immigration policy in GCC countries," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 444-464, July.
    18. Robert Duval-Hernandez & Ferran Martinez i Coma, 2012. "Immigrants' rights and benefits. A public opinion analysis for Spain," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 15-2012, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    19. Nikoleta Yordanova & Mariyana Angelova & Roni Lehrer & Moritz Osnabrügge & Sander Renes, 2020. "Swaying citizen support for EU membership: Evidence from a survey experiment of German voters," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(3), pages 429-450, September.
    20. Mohsen Javdani, 2020. "Public attitudes toward immigration—Determinants and unknowns," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 473-473, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:10:y:2009:i:4:p:456-481. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.