Federal popular initiative "for the proportional representation of the National Council"

Poster of the "Swiss Action Committee for the National Council Proporz" from 1918

The federal popular initiative “Proportional election of the National Council” was adopted on October 13, 1918 in Switzerland. They demanded a change in the National Council's electoral system from majority voting (Majorz) to proportional representation (Proporz). The electoral system introduced with this popular initiative is still in use today. It was the third popular initiative to call for this, the previous initiatives were rejected in 1900 and 1910.

prehistory

Hagenbach-Bischoff for the Swiss electoral reform association

As early as 1846 in Geneva , Victor Considerant proposed the introduction of proportional representation, according to which the seats in parliament would have been allocated according to the strength of the parties. He was followed by other pioneers such as Ernest Naville from Geneva or Eduard Hagenbach-Bischoff from Basel , who campaigned for the proportional representation system with publications and in associations. In 1891, Ticino was the first canton to introduce proportional voting. Neuchâtel followed in the same year and Geneva a year later.

At the federal level, the free-thinking majority in parliament rejected all proposals for proportional representation. The proportional representation friends used the popular initiative introduced in 1891 to propagate their cause. In 1900 and 1910 such popular initiatives were rejected, initially clearly, then only barely.

Procedure and content

With this starting point, a further referendum was launched in 1913. Within a few months, the necessary signatures were collected by an alliance of Social Democrats and Catholic Conservatives ; on August 13, 1913 the initiative was submitted.

The initiative in its wording:

Art. 73 of the Federal Constitution is repealed and is replaced by the following article:

The elections to the National Council are direct. They take place according to the principle of proportionality, with each canton and each half-canton forming an electoral district.

The federal legislation makes the more detailed provisions on the implementation of this principle.

The Federal Council transferred its opinion ( message ) to the Federal Assembly on March 16, 1914. With reference to the urgency of the First World War, the Federal Assembly postponed the treatment of the initiative so that it did not come before the people and the cantons (cantons) until October 1918.

Ballot from October 13, 1918

In the meantime, peasant politicians had begun to break away from the free-thinking extended family and to be interested in proportional representation. The later Federal Councilor Rudolf Minger declared in 1917: "Proporz was raised from the other side. But today we farmers have every interest in joining this movement. And there is only one solution for us: to found our own independent peasant party! "

Voting results

The result of the referendum on October 13, 1918 on the popular initiative was clear: 66.8 percent yes (299,550 votes) and 33.2 percent no (149,035); among the stands, 19.5 agreed and 2.5 rejected.

Federal referendum on November 4, 1900

Yes (9 ³ / ₂ Scores)

No (10 ³ / ₂ Scores)

Voting results per canton

Canton	Yes (%)	No (%)	Participation (%)
Aargau	28.0	72.0	82.8
Appenzell Ausserrhoden	10.1	89.9	72.9
Appenzell Innerrhoden	53.3	46.7	80.6
Basel-Country	22.7	77.3	38.1
Basel city	44.4	55.6	53.0
Bern	32.1	67.9	50.3
Freiburg	77.3	22.7	56.8
Geneva	54.4	45.6	48.5
Glarus	54.7	45.3	61.9
Grisons	39.2	60.8	66.2
Lucerne	50.6	49.4	50.6
Neuchâtel	48.7	51.3	47.1
Nidwalden	60.1	39.9	42.4
Obwalden	68.3	31.7	43.8
Schaffhausen	21.2	78.8	82.7
Schwyz	76.1	23.9	38.5
Solothurn	43.4	56.6	60.9
St. Gallen	47.6	52.4	79.7
Ticino	51.5	48.5	40.1
Thurgau	27.6	72.4	68.3
Uri	65.7	34.3	58.1
Vaud	33.0	67.0	53.1
Valais	78.0	22.0	51.6
train	54.0	46.0	52.9
Zurich	31.8	68.2	68.7
Swiss Confederation	40.9	59.1	58.8

Federal referendum on October 23, 1910

Yes (10 ⁴ / ₂ Scores)

No (9 ² / ₂ Scores)

Voting results per canton

Canton	Yes (%)	No (%)	Participation (%)
Aargau	44.3	55.7	87.1
Appenzell Ausserrhoden	21.6	78.4	81.7
Appenzell Innerrhoden	69.5	30.5	84.0
Basel-Country	36.7	63.3	50.3
Basel city	56.6	43.4	53.6
Bern	40.5	59.5	51.2
Freiburg	25.1	74.9	49.6
Geneva	65.7	34.3	33.1
Glarus	40.6	59.4	69.0
Grisons	46.9	53.1	68.0
Lucerne	56.7	43.3	57.9
Neuchâtel	61.3	38.7	44.6
Nidwalden	65.8	34.2	50.5
Obwalden	72.5	27.5	46.1
Schaffhausen	33.2	66.8	81.5
Schwyz	67.1	32.9	48.3
Solothurn	67.1	45.3	77.6
St. Gallen	51.9	48.1	89.7
Ticino	65.8	34.2	37.4
Thurgau	38.0	62.0	85.9
Uri	76.8	23.2	62.4
Vaud	36.2	63.8	46.4
Valais	60.9	39.1	45.4
train	68.4	31.6	56.0
Zurich	49.3	50.7	78.4
Swiss Confederation	47.5	52.5	62.4

Federal referendum on October 13, 1918

Yes (17 ⁵ / ₂ Scores)

No (2 ¹ / ₂ Scores)

Voting results per canton

Canton	Yes (%)	No (%)	Participation (%)
Aargau	53.8	46.2	82.1
Appenzell Ausserrhoden	35.4	64.6	65.7
Appenzell Innerrhoden	77.0	23.0	73.3
Basel-Country	73.9	26.1	36.6
Basel city	84.8	15.2	43.1
Bern	75.9	24.1	38.6
Freiburg	73.4	26.6	36.4
Geneva	80.6	19.4	24.3
Glarus	60.7	39.3	53.9
Grisons	51.2	48.8	61.6
Lucerne	75.6	24.4	41.2
Neuchâtel	93.2	6.8	33.9
Nidwalden	80.8	19.2	31.8
Obwalden	81.8	18.2	34.4
Schaffhausen	56.5	43.5	76.4
Schwyz	82.3	17.7	32.3
Solothurn	75.4	24.6	52.0
St. Gallen	62.4	37.6	75.1
Ticino	82.6	17.4	22.4
Thurgau	44.7	55.3	80.2
Uri	87.3	12.7	44.1
Vaud	49.3	50.7	35.9
Valais	88.5	11.5	35.0
train	79.2	20.8	34.2
Zurich	68.9	31.1	65.1
Swiss Confederation	66.8	33.2	49.5

implementation

In the call for the Swiss national strike , reference was made to this decision from the left: "In the memorable vote on October 13, democracy and the people [have] withdrawn their confidence in the current responsible authorities in the country." The demands demanded immediate elections for the National Council on the basis of proportional representation. Even if the state strike was broken off on November 14th, the Federal Council presented its draft law on November 26th, 1918 to implement the popular initiative. The Federal Assembly began its deliberations in December 1918 and passed the proportional representation law on February 14, 1919.

On October 26, 1919, the first proportional representation to the National Council took place ( Swiss parliamentary elections 1919 ), with a never-before-seen turnout of eighty percent. Freinn lost its previous absolute majority, the Social Democrats and the Peasant Party (later SVP) won many seats, while the Catholic Conservatives stagnated.

literature

• Peter Szekendy: 100 years after the introduction of proportional representation: a look at five long decades as a dynamic process , in: Parlament, issue 3/2018, pp. 48–62 ( PDF )
• Handbook of the federal referendums 1848 to 2007 , edited by Wolf Linder and others, Bern 2010. ISBN 978-3-258-07564-8
• Alfred Kölz : Modern Swiss constitutional history, its basic lines in the federal government and cantons since 1848 , Bern 2004. ISBN 3-7272-9455-8 . Pp. 698-733.
• Rudolf Natsch: The introduction of proportional voting rights for the election of the Swiss National Council (1900-1919), in: Démocratie référendaire en Suisse au 20e siècle. Tome I: Analysis de cas. Friborg, 1972, p. 119-182.
• Jean-François Aubert : The Swiss Federal Assembly from 1848–1998 , Basel, 1998, pp. 83–104.
• Peter Gilg : Electoral systems. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Web links

• Referendum of October 13, 1918 , Swiss Federal Chancellery
• Lukas Leuzinger: Farewell to the liberal claim to omnipotence , in: NZZ, October 8, 2018
• Lukas Leuzinger: A utopian socialist, a conservative philosopher and a liberal mathematician: The fathers of proportional representation in Switzerland , September 13, 2018
• Fritz Studer: Memories of the struggles for the introduction of proportional voting , in: Rote Revue , Volume 23 (1943–1944), Issue 3, pp. 81–89. doi: 10.5169 / seals-334944 (PDF)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Federal Chancellery BK: referendum of November 4, 1900 . ( admin.ch [accessed on October 8, 2018]).
2. ^ Federal Chancellery BK: referendum of October 23, 1910 . ( admin.ch [accessed on October 8, 2018]).
3. ↑ Initiative text according to the Federal Chancellery
4. ^ Konrad Stamm: Minger: Bauer, Bundesrat. The extraordinary career of Rudolf Minger from Mülchi in the Limpachtal. NZZ Libro, Zurich 2017, ISBN 978-3-03810-284-7 . P. 65
5. ^ Federal Chancellery BK: referendum of October 13, 1918 . ( admin.ch [accessed on October 8, 2018]).
6. ↑ Federal Chancellery BK: Template No. 57: Results in the cantons. Retrieved June 28, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Federal Chancellery BK: Template No. 70: Results in the cantons. Retrieved June 28, 2020 . 
8. ^ Federal Chancellery BK: Template No. 77: Results in the cantons. Retrieved June 28, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Olten Action Committee: leaflet of the strike committee for the imposition of the general state strike. November 1918. Retrieved October 8, 2018 . 
10. ^ Federal Council Message of November 26, 1918 (PDF)
11. ↑ Official stenographic protocol for the negotiations of the proportional representation law (PDF)
12. ^ Proportional Act of February 14, 1919 (PDF)
13. ↑ Federal law on the election of the National Council of February 14, 1919 (PDF)