Fudan-LSE Lecture Series No.54

Title: 

Direct legislation: a road to success? A perspective from Switzerland

Speaker: 

Prof. Daniel Kübler, Department of Political Science, University of Zurich

Host: 

Prof. Yijia Jing, IGPP, Fudan University

Discussant:

Prof. Lisheng Dong,Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Associate Prof. Zhongyuan Wang，Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences

Time: 

12:00-13:20 (Beijing Time), April 10th

Venue: 

Room 805E, 8thFloor，West Sub-building of Guanghua Towers

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The Speaker：

Daniel Kübler is a Professor at the Department of Political Science and co-directs the Centre for Democracy Studies at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He is an associated researcher at the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Science Po Paris. He studied political science at the University of Lausanne, where he also obtained his PhD. He has held visiting positions at the University of Constance, the University of New South Wales, as well as the University of Canberra.

Abstract: 

Citizen participation in policy-making is generally welcome. But there is a long-running debate of how far such participation should go. In his talk, Professor Kübler will focus on direct legislation as one of the most far-reaching forms of citizen participation. Drawing on the World of Referendums report released by the University of Zurich in 2023, he will focus on the case of Switzerland, where direct legislation by citizens is frequent. Research on the impacts showed that direct legislation in Switzerland led to the pacification of political conflicts, reduced public expenditures, and increased citizens’ life satisfaction. In the Swiss case, direct legislation was an element of economic and social success.