Anti-impérialisme et nouvelle gauche radicale dans la Suisse des années 68

Cette thèse entend apporter un éclairage sur l'histoire politique et sociale de la Suisse des années 68, en étudiant l'articulation entre les mouvements anti-impérialistes et la nouvelle gauche radicale, alors foisonnante. Il s'agit d'analyser cette période de contestation au prisme de l'anti-impérialisme révolutionnaire, lequel, dans le contexte de l'opposition à la guerre du Vietnam, a fortement imprégné le mouvement protestataire, en assignant notamment au tiers-monde le rôle de sujet de l'émancipation mondiale. Combinant une triple approche - chronologique, thématique et biographique - ce travail est structuré en quatre parties. La première partie esquisse un panorama des mouvements anti-impérialistes des années 1960 et 1970 en Suisse, avec une focalisation sur les «années anti-imp», entre 1968 et 1975. La deuxième interroge le rapport entre anti¬impérialisme et nouvelle gauche radicale, en proposant une typologie des principaux courants. La troisième partie s'attache à examiner le système de représentations du monde et de la Suisse véhiculé par le discours de l'extrême gauche. Prenant pour objet le militantisme, la dernière partie esquisse un portrait de groupe de la « génération anti-imp », fondé sur une enquête prosopographique et sur un corpus d'entretiens réalisés avec des militants de l'époque. L'étude révèle que l'anti-impérialisme a fourni à la contestation soixante-huitarde un cadre conceptuel et analytique, un facteur de structuration, ainsi qu'un vecteur de mobilisation. Il a en particulier permis à la gauche radicale suisse d'inscrire sa lutte anticapitaliste locale dans un horizon global d'émancipation. L'analyse de l'anti-impérialisme révolutionnaire, qui a connu son apogée dans les années 68 avant de connaître un déclin rapide et presque total, invite à appréhender cette « décennie mouvementée » comme la fin d'un long cycle politique. -- This thesis aims to shed light on the social and political history of Switzerland in the 1960s and 1970s by studying the relationship between anti-imperialist movements and the emerging new radical left. It analyses this time of rebellion through the prism of revolutionary anti-imperialism. In the context of opposition to the Vietnam War, anti-imperialism strongly influenced protest movements, notably by assigning to the Third World the role of main actor in the fight for global emancipation. Combining a threefold approach - chronological, thematic and biographical - this work is structured in four parts. The first part provides a panorama of the anti-imperialist movements of the long 1960s in Switzerland with a focus on the « anti-imp years » between 1968 and 1975. The second part questions the relationship between anti-imperialism and the new radical left and proposes a typology of its main currents. The third part examines how the radical left's discourse represented the world, and Switzerland in particular. The last part addresses the question of activism and outlines a group portrait of the « anti-imp generation » based on a prosopographical study and on a body of interviews with former activists. This study reveals that anti-imperialism, besides serving as an agent of mobilization, provided a conceptual and ideological framework, as well as a structuring factor, to the protest movements. In particular, it enabled the Swiss radical left to fit its local anti-capitalist struggle into a global horizon of emancipation. This analysis of revolutionary anti- imperialism, which had its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s before experiencing a rapid and almost total decline, thus invites us to see this « turbulent decade » as the end of a long political cycle.

The Impact of the Electoral System on Political Campaigning : Are Candidates for the Council of States More Moderate than their Fellow Candidates for the National Council ?

It is commonly believed that majority voting enhances parties to cluster around the centre of the political space, whereas proportional systems (PR) foster great ideological divergence. The theoretical arguments for these expectations go back to the work of Downs (1957) and Duverger (1954). More recent studies, however, produced quite contradictory empirical findings. In this paper I will test whether similar arguments hold true for the positioning of candidates campaigning in different electoral systems. The elections for the two chambers of the Swiss Parliament and the data from the Swiss Electoral Studies (SELECTS) and the Swiss Voting Advice Application (VAA) smartvote offer an excellent - almost laboratory like - opportunity to do so empirically. The analyses show clearly, the theoretical claims that majority voting necessarily fosters more moderate positions find no support. The candidates for the Council of States, elected in a majority system, are not more moderate than their fellow party candidates for the National Council which are elected in a PR system.

Policy attitudes, ideological values and social representations

This article reviews research on policy attitudes and ideological values from the perspective of social representations theory. In the first part of the paper, key features of lay political thinking are presented, its pragmatic imperative, its focus on communication and the social functions of shared knowledge. Objectification transforms abstract and group-neutral ideological values into concrete and socially useful knowledge, in particular stereotypes of value-conforming and value-violating groups. Such shared understandings of intergroup relations provide citizens with common reference knowledge which provides the cognitive and cultural basis of policy attitudes. Social representations theory further suggests that lay knowledge reflects the social context in which it has been elaborated (anchoring), an aspect which allows conceptualising aggregate-level differences in policy attitudes. In the second part of the paper, a model of lay conceptions of social order is outlined which organises four shared conceptions of social order, along with the stereotype-based thinking associated with each conception: Moral order, Free Market, Social diversity and Structural inequality. We conclude by arguing that policy attitudes are symbolic devices expressed to justify or to challenge existing social arrangements.

Does Direct Democracy Matters for Political Parties : An Empirical Test in the Swiss Cantons

According to most political scientists and commentators, direct democracy seems to weaken political parties. Our empirical analysis in the 26 Swiss cantons shows that this thesis in its general form cannot be maintained. Political parties in cantons with extensive use of referendums and initiatives are not in all respects weaker than parties in cantons with little use of direct democratic means of participation. On the contrary, direct democracy goes together with more professional and formalized party organizations. Use of direct democracy is associated with more fragmented and volatile party systems, and with greater support for small parties, but causal interpretations of these relationships are difficult.

Directly Elected Mayors and their Parties: The Cases of Genoa and Lausanne

While the literature on directly elected mayors has largely neglected the relationship between mayors and their parties, studies of party transformation have generally ignored how changes in local democratic rules and practices affect parties. This article addresses these questions using a qualitative case study of the relationship between mayors and the three faces of their parties (in local public office, local central office and on the ground) in Genoa and Lausanne. Based on interviews with the mayors, elected representatives and party members, it finds in the two cases that, as long as these mayors can count on high levels of popularity and are not nearing the end of their term, they are 'party detached'. When these factors do not apply and/or party institutionalization increases, the relationship with the party in local central office (although not with the party in local public office or on the ground) becomes more significant.