Acceptance in policy making is not only a question of referenda. Equally important are the sequences of events and the parties involved during the phase of formulating transport policies. Here, in the long run, a general consent and the learning ability of various institutions play a major role in a sustainable transport policy. The project focuses on these issues related to the political process: What are the differences in the political processes in relation to transport in Switzerland, in Germany, and in the Netherlands? How can the willingness of important decision-makers to reach agreement be increased? How can acceptance during the decision-making and implementation phase be increased? (e.g. via management of policy networks)? The projects focuses on comparisons between countries, and is based on interviews with experts. These interviews are supplemented with the analysis of primary documents and secondary literature. In comparison with Germany and the Netherlands, direct democracy has proved successful for Swiss transport policies. On the other hand, Switzerland should also look more closely at new co-operation models such as agreements with private actors. These are the conclusions from this acceptance study analysing the procedures and players during all the phases of a political process. The study emphasises that – besides the three pillars of economic, ecological and social sustainability – care needs to be taken with the quality of the political proces in order to secure acceptance. The quality of the process, that is, discussion, negotiation and mediation styles, is key to our understanding of sustainability. A first step in this direction would be to establish an open ‘Sustainable Mobility Forum'.
VEPOS aims at enhancing the policy oriented competences of federal administrators. On the basis of three case-studies of policy making in Switzerland the Institute of Political Science has developed the concept for a 3-day seminar in which top- and middle-level employees of the federal administration are trained in various aspects of crisis-management. The seminar is held every year in autumn.
Since 1977 VOX is a regularly follow-up survey of 1500 Swiss citizens (700 until 1987, 1000 until 2009); sampled in a multistage procedure combining stratified random and quota sampling. The telephone interviews are carried out by a commercial company (gfs.bern), the Departments of Political Science of the Universities at Bern, Geneva and Zurich are responsible for questionnaire designs, analysis and reporting of results. Realized after each national ballot about referenda and initiatives it concerns most aspects of political life in Switzerland and tries to analyze, who voted, how and why. From a theoretical point of view, the survey mainly follows the sociological and psychological approach of election studies, but short-term influences of issues, media, campaigning and arguments are treated as well.