POLITICS
Contact with constituents trumps party loyalty
Researchers at the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva have been investigating why MPs sometimes vote against their own party.
Requests for access to official documents should in principle be free of charge. A large majority in the National Council voted for this two years ago, across party lines. | Image: Livestream parlament.ch
The Swiss elections are now behind us, and the members of parliament have been determined for the next legislature. But just how faithfully they follow their respective party line will in part depend on their personality. This has been shown by a study conducted by the universities of Lausanne and Geneva, based on a pool of 866 MPs across four countries including Switzerland.
If parliamentarians are conscientious and also have regular contact with their own voters, then they tend to vote more often against their party if its decisions run counter to the interests of their constituents. “If voters think differently from their party, and if an MP is made aware of this, then it is likely that an MP’s conscience will prevent them from following the party line”, says Pirmin Bundi, the lead author. Such lapses in party loyalty can be observed in matters like baby hatches, he says.
