The Swiss Chair on Federalism and Democracy

This Chair has been made available by the generosity of the Swiss Federal Office for Education and Science. During an initial period of two years, Professors Alexander Trechsel (2002/3) and Juerg Steiner (2003/4) held this chair on a part-time basis.

In 2004 the profile of the Chair has been extended to focus on both topics of federalism and democracy on a full-time basis.

As of January 2005, the Swiss Chair has been held by Prof. Alexander Trechsel .

Output of the Swiss Chair on Federalism and Democracy in 2008

Chair Personnel

Throughout 2008 Professor Alexander H. Trechsel was the holder of the Swiss Chair in Federalism and Democracy on a full-time basis.

Secretarial assistance to the chair holder was provided by Ms. Gabriella Unger on a part-time (50 percent) basis
Dr. Andrew Glencross continued working for the Swiss Chair on external-funds and on a full-time basis as research assistant from January to July of 2008
Dr. Cormac Mac Amhlaigh continued his part-time work for the Swiss Chair on the basis of external funds until March 2008
Dr. Fabian Breuer was hired on a part-time basis by the Swiss Chair (external funds to the Chair) for the period from June 2008 until the end of the calendar year
Dr. Jörg Balsiger, a Swiss national with a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, was awarded a Max Weber Fellowship under the co-mentorship of Prof. Trechsel for the academic year 2007/08
Dr. Umut Aydin, a Turkish national with a Ph.D. from the University of Washington (Seattle) was awarded a Max Weber Fellowship under the co-mentorship of Prof. Trechsel for the academic year 2007/08
Dr. Isabelle Engel, a Swiss national with a Ph.D. from the University of Geneva, was awarded a Max Weber Fellowship under the mentorship of Prof. Trechsel for the academic year 2008/09

Achievements of the Swiss Chair

Teaching and supervision

During the Spring term of the academic year 2007/08, Prof. Trechsel initiated the teaching of a newly designed seminar on the topic of “EU Federalism and Democracy”. This seminar brought together the two major topics of the Swiss Chair and linked them to the European Union. Prof. Trechsel closely collaborated with his Max Weber Fellow mentorees, Dr. Balsiger and Dr. Aydin on the design and implementation of this seminar.
In the Autumn term 2008, Prof. Trechsel taught a seminar, together with Prof. Peter Mair, on the topic of “Frontiers of Democracy”. This course offered over 20 participants an intellectual journey to the frontiers of democracy and beyond. The first part of the seminar dealt with established institutions and processes whose functions and functioning are expanding, altered, stagnating or breaking down. In particular, the seminar focused on challenges to party government and political parties in modern liberal democracies. In the second part of the seminar the focus was then put on innovations in the democratic realm. For six sessions, seminar participants discussed the topics of direct democracy, audience democracy and stealth democracy, participatory democracy, electronic democracy, paparazzi democracy and supranational (European) democracy. The course concluded on concrete proposals for reforming democracy. The course was very successful and guest lectures, amongst which Prof. Hanspeter Kriesi’s (University of Zurich) lecture merits a special mention.
In 2008 Prof. Trechsel also made contributions to several teaching modules of EUI-external programmes. Particular mention should be made of his talk in June 2008 (in German), on the topic of “Föderalistische und Demokratische Defizite der EU” within the framework of a French-German Masters Programme (University of Potsdam and ENA Paris) in which the EUI is a partner
In June 2008 a workshop on the topic of “Innovations in Research on Political Behavior” was organised by the Swiss Chair. This above all quantitative methods oriented workshop included the participation of Prof. R. Michael Alvarez (California Institute of Technology), Prof. Thad Hall (University of Utah) and Dr. Guido Schwerdt (ifo Munich).
In Autumn 2008 five new researchers were be recruited by Prof. Trechsel, bringing the number of his current Ph.D. supervisees to fifteen.
Until June 2008, Prof. Trechsel was the co-mentor of two Max Weber Fellows (see above) and as of September 2008 the mentor of one Max Weber Fellow.

Research

In 2008 Prof. Trechsel continued his work on internet voting in Estonia, in collaboration with Prof. Michael Alvarez (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena) and Prof. Thad Hall (University of Utah, Salt Lake City). One of the outcomes of their work will be published in the form of an article in one of the professional journals of the American Political Science Association (PS: Political Science and Politics) in June 2009.
On 10-11 January 2008 Prof. Trechsel co-organized an RSCAS and EUI Research Council sponsored EUDO Workshop on Ombudsman studies with, amongst others the participation of the European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros. This workshop took place within the framework of the Ombudsman studies research project directed by Prof. Trechsel, Prof. Stefano Bartolini (Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the EUI) and Prof. Jacques Ziller from the Law Department.
Until Summer 2008, Prof. Trechsel coordinated the European Commission funded research project on participatory politics. This project allowed the Swiss Chair to continue employing a full-time research fellow (Dr. Andrew Glencross) for the first part of 2008. For more details consult http://tidplus.net/
In 2008 Prof. Trechsel and Dr. Andrew Glencross jointly continued their research on public opinion and the referendums on the European Constitution. Their project examines data from the four countries that held a referendum on the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe in 2005: Spain, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Their article based on this research is currently under review with the journal West European Politics.
In Spring 2008, several colleagues from the EUI, including Prof. Trechsel, and from other European universities succeeded in a bid for the structural funding of the European Union Democracy Observatory (EUDO) within the framework of the RSCAS. The EUI Research Council accepted to fund EUDO activities in 2009 (in principle renewable up to four years). This contribution means that EUDO could effectively start doing “serious business” from January 2009 onwards.

Public Events and Conference Participation

April 2008: Prof. Trechsel was invited by Prof. Carlos Moreiro to teach a graduate class at the University “Carlos III” in Madrid on the topic of EU federalism and democracy.
May 2008: Participation of Prof. Trechsel heading a group of over 20 EUI researchers in a Conference on Voting Advice Applications at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. Prof. Trechsel presented a paper he co-authored with Prof. Mark Franklin (see below).
June 2008: Representing one of the three partner-institutions of the European Commission funded TID+ project, Prof. Trechsel gave a keynote speech on electronic democracy at the closing conference of the project in Tallinn, Estonia.
September 2008: Prof. Trechsel was invited to give a talk at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels on the topic of the EU Profiler project to the PES parliamentary group. October 2008: Prof. Trechsel gave two talks at the Council “Forum for the Future of Democracy”, organised by the Council of Europe, in Madrid.

Institutional Developments

Initially launched in Spring of 2006, the European Union Democracy Observatory (EUDO, http://www.eudo.eu ) received significant funding from the Research Council which enables it to become a major research platform within the EUI’s RSCAS with a long-term horizon and a large potential for development.

In 2008, numerous lectures, workshops and conferences were held and a number of research projects launched under the auspices of the Observatory.

Prof. Trechsel continued with his active involvement in the creation of a research collaborative network between the Swiss Confederation and the University of Edinburgh. The agreement signed between the partner institutions in November of 2006 includes close collaboration with the Swiss Chair at the EUI.

In 2008, the RSCAS co-funded a very ambitious project, the EU Profiler (http://www.euprofiler.eu ). This project grew to the size of over 130 collaborators led by a consortium including two partner institutions: the Dutch based company “kieskompas” and the University of Zurich based NCCR programme of Prof. Hanspeter Kriesi. Through the project a Voting Advice Application was created in view of the 2009 European Parliament elections. This project was a major success and was seen by 2.5 million users, of which over 900’000 have made full use of the application.

Publications and Papers by the Holder of the Swiss Chair

Kriesi, Hanspeter and Alexander H. Trechsel, 2008. The Politics of Switzerland. Continuity and Change in a Consensus Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Alvarez, R. Michael, Hall, Thad. and Alexander H. Trechsel, 2008. “Internet Voting in Estonia”, Voting Technology Project Working Paper: Caltech/MIT.
Franklin, Mark and Alexander H. Trechsel, 2008. „Matching voting advice applications and traditional surveys in electoral studies: the EES and the EU Profiler”, paper prepared for the international conference on “Voting Advice Applications (VAAs): between charlatanism and political science”, University of Antwerp, 16 May 2008.

Previous appointments

Professors Alexander Trechsel (University of Geneva) (March-June, 2003)
Jürg Steiner (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill/University of Berne, CH) (January-May, 2004)
Research Fellows (As of January 2005 this position is not anymore available)
Rory Domm (May-December 2003)
André Bächtiger (January-October, 2004)

Conferences organized within the framework of the Swiss Chair

Towards a Federal Europe? Conference organised by the Swiss Chair on Federalist Studies, Prof. Alexander H. Trechsel (2-3 June, 2003)
Empirical Approaches to Deliberative Politics 21-22 May, 2004
Conference organized by the Swiss Chair (Jürg Steiner and André Bächtiger)