Attitudes towards Federalism in Germany and Switzerland. Advancing Research on the Configuration, Determination, and Transformation of Subnational Identities and Preferences

• Applicants: Privatdozent Dr. Achim Hildebrandt; Privatdozentin Dr. Eva-Maria Trüdinger
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 490656298

This research project takes a comprehensive and in-depth look at citizens’ attitudes to federalism in the German Länder and Swiss Kantone. Indeed, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought back long-standing criticism of federalism’s effectiveness both in Germany and Switzerland. However, knowledge on citizens’ attitudes to federalism is scarce (and often limited to particular regions) despite the decisive role these attitudes play for the legitimation of federalism and of potential reforms of the federal system. Our project addresses this gap by mapping citizen attitudes to federalism both in Switzerland and Germany, explaining them, and conducting a detailed analysis of the malleability (and stability) of citizen preferences for centralisation. Germany and Switzerland represent an ideal setting for examining these questions. While sharing many similarities (such as being established federal countries within the group of wealthy Western democracies), the two countries differ with regard to several potentially relevant contextual factors such as differences in the historical origin of their regions. The project is divided into two subprojects: In the first subproject, we conceptualise several dimensions of attitudes to federalism, both with regard to attitudes to certain federal structures and to preferences about the level of government that should be in charge of various policy areas. The subproject improves on previous studies not only by employing new approaches to measure regional identity but also using data from an online survey in both countries collecting sufficient numbers of respondents in all regions. On this novel and expanded empirical basis, we explore the influence of regional identity and of a number of other predictors that have been neglected in previous research. In the second subproject, we explore the malleability (and stability) of preferences for the centralisation of several policies. Existing research shows that citizens are not particularly well-informed about the federal division of powers and that their attitudes can be inconsistent. In particular, we do not know how citizen preferences might change in response to pro and con arguments regarding centralisation or to issue variations, among other things. We will investigate these questions with the help of a vignette experiment, asking respondents to evaluate reform proposals on four issues (e.g. education policy and measures for controlling pandemics) that would involve a shift of responsibility from the regional to the national level. We will also test how a strong regional identity affects the processing of arguments on the pros and cons of centralisation. In sum, our project will provide a comprehensive mapping of citizen attitudes to federalism in general and their specific preferences for centralisation as well as a deeper understanding of relevant determinants.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Pirmin Bundi