More than half of the Swiss electorate do not take part in national elections. Turnout among the Swiss Abroad is particularly low. Paradoxically, direct democracy is one of the biggest reasons for low turnout in elections to elect parliamentary representatives, as the Swiss can vote on various policy issues in initiatives and referendums up to four times a year. This reduces the significance of national elections. In a survey, the second-most cited reason given by those who stayed away from such elections was that referendums and initiatives offer a greater opportunity to wield influence. This is reinforced by the fact that the Swiss government is very stable compared with many other democracies, and that all the big parties are represented in the cabinet. In short, federal elections in Switzerland are just not seen as that important. Given that there are usually four votes on referendums and initiatives every year, generally people devote more time to political issues than ...
