The welfarepriorities-team consists of myself, Macarena Ares, Reto Bürgisser, Matthias Enggist, Michael Pinggera, and Fabienne Eisenring. Current project output is on the project website. WELFAREPRIORITIES is a project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) running from September 2017 to March 2023. The goal of the project is to rethink social policy conflict. In times of austerity, the politics of the welfare state involve tough choices and even trade-offs: whose risks should benefit from social solidarity in a context of shrinking resources? Should the welfare state prioritize the needs of the elderly or those of the young? Those of people in the workforce or outside of the workforce? Of natives or of immigrants? How countries answer these key questions depends on the welfare state priorities of citizens, political elites and economic elites. However, we know still very little about these priorities and their determinants, and we know even less about the mechanisms that foster support for social solidarity – i.e. support for inclusive social security beyond self-interest. This project wants to make use of recent methodological advances to investigate precisely these priorities and mechanisms. The project has two phases: the goal of the first phase is to identify the most salient distributive conflicts and welfare trade-offs in eight European countries via observational and experimental survey data in 8 West European countries (Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, UK and Ireland). The second phase goes beyond conflict towards coalitions. It identifies the factors that foster support for social policies among those social groups who are unlikely to benefit directly from these policies themselves.
The Human Research Act (HRA) implemented in 2014 aims to protect the dignity, privacy and health of human beings involved in research. It is also designed to create favourable conditions for research involving human beings and to ensure the quality and transparency of research involving human beings. The focus of the evaluation is on the analysis of the implementation and the effect of the HRA taking all the relevant context factors into consideration and also including the identification of optimization potential. The modularly structured evaluation is carried out by cooperation between the Department of Political Science and KEK-CDC Consultants.
(German summary below) Summary Prosperous cities in Europe have difficulties in offering sufficient affordable housing, they exhibit hot spots with socially deprived population groups, provided these groups have not already been displaced into the agglomeration. And yet city administrations do have a number of instruments at their disposal for countering (but also for reinforcing) these trends. As principal investigator of an international SNSF project, I investigate the use of such instruments in three cities: Birmingham, Lyon, and Zurich. Urban zoning and building plans determine the permitted uses and plot ratios for each lot of the city, thereby defining the incentives and conditions for private developers. These plans also have an impact on possible housing policies, the creation of public parks or community centres. Departing from the urban planning concept of the "Just City" we explore the urban developments with regard to social hot spots, displacement, affordable housing and the set up of public amenities - from the 1990s to present. By focusing on the facilitating actors, processes and democratic institutions, the issue of the "Just City" is firstly investigated from a political science perspective. We complement previous work on leadership, democratic accountability and participatory planning with an integral view for three cities featuring different national planning systems and local government systems. Results will be discussed with political decision makers, administrative agencies and political activists. --- Zusammenfassung Prosperierende Städte Europas bekunden zunehmend Mühe, ausreichend bezahlbaren Wohnraum zu bieten, und sie verfügen oft über Brennpunkte mit sozial schwachen und schlecht integrierten Bevölkerungsgruppen, sofern diese nicht in die Agglomeration verdrängt werden. Dabei stehen den städtischen Behörden unterschiedliche Instrumente zur Verfügung, um diesen Entwicklungen entgegenzuwirken - oder aber zu verstärken. Der Einsatz solcher Instrumente sollen für drei Städte untersucht werden: Birmingham, Lyon und Zürich. Mit städtischen Bau- und Zonenplänen werden für jede Parzelle die vorgesehenen Nutzungsarten und Ausnutzungsziffern festgelegt, womit Anreize und Bedingungen für die Bautätigkeit von Privaten gesetzt werden. Damit verbunden sind aber auch die Möglichkeiten für die städtische Wohnbauförderung, für das Anlegen von Parks oder für den Bau von Schulen und öffentlichen Begegnungszentren. Ausgehend vom stadtplanerischen Konzept der „Gerechten Stadt“ untersuchen wir die städtischen Entwicklungen bezüglich sozialen Brennpunkten, Verdrängung, bezahlbarem Wohnangebot und Ausrichtung öffentlicher Einrichtungen – und zwar seit den 1990er Jahren bis heute. Durch den Fokus auf die ermöglichenden Akteure, Prozesse und demokratischen Institutionen wird das Thema der "Gerechten Stadt" erstmals aus politikwissenschaftlicher Perspektive untersucht. Bisherige Arbeiten zur Rolle von "Leadership", demokratischer Kontrolle und partizipativen Planungsverfahren werden ergänzt um eine integrierte Betrachtung am Beispiel von drei Städten mit unterschiedlichen nationalen Planungssystemen und lokalen demokratischen Institutionen. Die Ergebnisse der Studie sollen abschliessend mit politischen Entscheidungsträgern, Verwaltungsstellen und politische Aktivisten diskutiert werden.
The National Programme for HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) (NPHS) 2011–2017 presents a strategy for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of HIV and other STIs. It is structured along three axes of intervention, each aimed to reach a specific target group: the total Swiss population, people with a higher risk of exposure, and infected individuals and their partners. As a joint strategy of the Swiss Confederation, cantons, and non-governmental organizations the NPHS is implemented on a partnership basis. With regard to the programme period ending in 2017, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (SFOPH) has commissioned the Department of Political Science in collaboration with Synergo to carry out an evaluation of the NPHS 2011-2017. The summative evaluation assesses the progress made on achieving the objectives and the implementation of the programme. The results of the evaluation serve to formulate the application for the extension of the programme and form the basis for the development of a successor programme.
The aim of the research project is to assess, understand and explain an emerging form of alternative political participation in Switzerland, known as political consumerism. Political consumerism means the active consumer choice of producers, products and services based on ethical considerations. Acknowledging and benefiting from a huge interdisciplinary body of research on multiple aspects of political consumerism our project is aimed to refine and advance political consumerism research from an explicit perspective of political science. Some political scientists argue that political consumerism is a significant form of political participation as activists aim to bring about social and political change through purchasing behaviour. While traditional forms of political participation, such as voting, campaigning and party work or contacting representatives seem to be on the decline, sparse empirical data suggest that political consumerism is a steadily increasing form of activism in Switzerland and other Western industrialized countries. Our aim to explore political consumerism as a new and important form of political participation in Switzerland requires three interrelated research steps: First, based on abundant interdisciplinary research on different forms of political consumerism, we plan to purposely develop an elaborated survey instrument that reconciles deficits of current quantitative measurement instruments for political consumerism. In particular, the survey must account for political motives in shopping behaviour, frequency and breadth of behaviour and must collect data on the whole repertoire of political consumerism. Second, we will use this new instrument to assess political consumerism in Switzerland. The third and main step is to assess political consumerism in Switzerland, analyse its determining factors and compare results to other long-studied forms of political participation.
Das Zentrum für Demokratie (ZDA) der Universität Zürich erstellt im Auftrag des Bundesamtes für Statistik (BFS) eine Datenbank zu den kantonalen Parlaments- und Regierungswahlen, den Wahlen in den rund 130 Schweizer Städten, zu den Parteipositionen und den Gemeinderesultaten der nationalen Volksabstimmungen, sowie zu den Wahlen ins nationale Parlament.
Swiss Political Science Review (SPSR) aims to be a pluralist platform for advancing academic knowledge and debate in the field of political science, and in particular for developing intellectual exchange across traditional boundaries between its subfields and with its neighbouring disciplines. Accordingly, it publishes original and innovative work that makes a theoretical or empirical contribution to the study of political phenomena. SPSR encourages contributions from different theoretical and methodological approaches in order to further their mutual engagement.A fully refereed journal, SPSR publishes research and review articles, book reviews as well as special issues on selected topics. While open to submissions on all topics relevant to political science, SPSR particularly welcomes work engaging with changes in modes and structures of governance, and the challenges this presents for political actors and structures. Having its roots in Switzerland, SPSR is particularly interested in advancing knowledge on the implications of the embedding of national and domestic modes and structures of governance in international and transnational ones as well as issues such as federalism, direct democracy or consociational politics.
Nach jedem eidgenössischen Urnengang wird eine repräsentative Stichprobe von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern telefonisch befragt. Die Analysen der Antworten geben Aufschluss über die Gründe für die Stimmbeteiligung, sowie über die Motive für eine Ablehnung oder Annahme der Abstimmungsvorlagen. Alle Analyseberichte werden auf der Projekt-Website publiziert und die anonymisierten Daten werden für Sekundäranalysen zur Verfügung gestellt (www.voto.swiss).
In the policy-making process, Business has various means to influence policy, and because of its resources and its importance for the economy, it has a distinct advantage compared to other interest groups. Nevertheless, Business does not always win policy debates. This project looks at the sources of the structural power of Business and its limits. It analyzes how much policymakers – in particular city mayors – privilege the concerns of Business over other policy goals. And it analyzes important policy instances – such as the establishment of deposit-insurance schemes – in which consumer interests won out over the interests of Business.
Die Topkader der Bundesverwaltung haben einen massgeblichen Einfluss auf die Förderung von Sprachgruppen und der Mehrsprachigkeit in der Bundesverwaltung. Das Forschungsprojekt will diese Personen zu ihrer Sichtweise über die Herausforderungen einer mehrsprachigen Verwaltung befragen, sowie über ihre Haltung zu den Massnahmen bezüglich Förderung der Mehrsprachigkeit in der Bundesverwaltung. Dabei verfolgt das Forschungsprojekt zwei konkrete Ziele: Erstes Ziel ist es, die Einstellungen von Mitgliedern des Topkaders gegenüber dem Sprachmanagement in ihrer Verwaltungseinheit zu eruieren und die Faktoren zu bestimmen, welche diese Einstellungen beeinflussen. Zweites Ziel ist es, zu untersuchen wie die Mitglieder des Topkaders ihre Handlungsspielräume nutzen zur Verbesserung der Sprachkompetenzen von Mitarbeitenden, zur Förderung von Mehrsprachigkeit in Verwaltungseinheiten (Arbeits-, Redaktions- und Verständigungssprachen), sowie zur verstärkten Rekrutierung und Beförderung von Angehörigen der Sprachminderheiten.