Value Change in Switzerland

by Kriesi, Hanspeter; Hug, Simon; Bernhard, Laurant; Bornschier, Simon; Bühlmann, Marc; Büttikofer, Sarah; Carlo, Ivan de; Engeli, Isabelle; Guigni, Marco; Häfliger, Ursula; Kriesi, Hanspeter; Häusermann, Silja; Helbling, Marc; Leimgruber, Philipp; Morariu,

• ISBN13: 9780739139332
• ISBN10: 0739139339
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-03-18
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

Values form fundamental principles that help orient individuals in their daily life, and as such are rather stable across time. Changes in the political, economic, and social environment, as those experienced by Switzerland in the last two decades, may affect these value priorities through generational change and individual reorientations. The present book documents how values have changed over the last twenty years in Switzerland as it navigated in the rough waters of an increasingly globalized environment and a changing international political context. The contributions show how Swiss citizens position themselves in their social relations, including the large share of foreigners among the residents in the Alpine republic. In particular, the book highlights how religious values have changed in their meanings. Contributions to this volume also show the consequences of value change in the social and political sphere. Values influence the citizens' views on European integration, their disposition to provide volunteer work, their electoral choices, etc. The volume thus offers a detailed view on how values have changed in Switzerland and how these changes affected the social and political sphere.

Author Biography

Simon Hug is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Universit de Genve. Hanspeter Kriesi is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Zurich, and the director of the NCCR-Democracy, a Swiss national competence center for research on the challenges to democracy in the twenty-first century.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
The Swiss in the Age of Secularization and Individualization
Values and Value Change: Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Patterns	p. 3
Changing Religiosity, Changing Politics? The Influence of Traditional and Posttraditional Forms of Religiosity on Political Attitudes	p. 23
The Transformation of the Ideological Gender Gap in Switzerland	p. 45
The Swiss in the Age of Globalization
Islamophobia in Switzerland: A New Phenomenon or a New Name for Xenophobia?	p. 65
Intolerance Begets Intolerance: Explaining Negative Attitudes toward Foreigners and Muslims in Switzerland, 1996-2007	p. 81
Swiss Euroskepticism: Economically or Culturally Determined?	p. 99
Integrating the Defense of Traditional Communities into the Libertarian-Authoritarian Divide: The Role of the Swiss People's Party in the Redefinition of Cultural Conflicts	p. 121
Restructuring Swiss Welfare Politics: Postindustrial Labor Market, Globalization, and Welfare Values	p. 143
The Swiss in the Age of an Alleged Decline in Social Capital
Why Do the Swiss Trust Their Government Less and Other People More Than They Used To? The Impact of Cohorts and Periods on Political Confidence and Interpersonal Trust in Switzerland	p. 171
Benevolent Against the Odds? Volunteering Patterns in an Individualist Society	p. 191
Swiss Democracy in Crisis? An Analysis of Exit and Voice	p. 211
Conclusion	p. 231
Bibliography	p. 235
Index	p. 259
About the Contributors	p. 263
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