P OLITICALLY I NVOLVED AND L EFT O RIENTED

5.1.1POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT

The first set of political attitudes we take into account is related to the degree of political involvement and participation an individual declares. Four variables of the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) are included in the analyses. The first one assesses the level of interest in politics and is represented by the following question: “Gener-ally, how interested are you in politics, if 0 means "not at all inter-ested" and 10 "very interinter-ested"?”. The second variable captures the feeling of political influence declared by the respondent, who

is asked: “How much influence do you think someone like you can have on government policy, if 0 means "no influence", and 10

"a very strong of influence"?”. The third variable explicitly measures the level of political participation in federal polls and is represented by the following question: “Let's suppose that there are 10 federal polls in a year. How many do you usually take part in?”. The last one is also a question related to political participa-tion, but it is more concrete and probably provides a more valid measure of the concept: “If there was an election for the National Council tomorrow, for which party would you vote?” The answer options include the list of parties in the Swiss political arena, the vote for a candidate instead of a party and the option of not vot-ing. We dichotomized the answers by “No vote” and “Vote for any party or any candidate”.

Figure 5.1 (on the next page) shows four graphs that compare for members and non-members the mean level or, in the case of the last variable, the ratio of the proportions in the four variables cited in the previous paragraph. As a remainder, the ratio of the proportions is an indicator we introduced in chapter 2 that repre-sents the ratio of the probabilities of being classified in a certain category between union members and non-members. It serves as a substitute of the comparison of the means when analyzing a cat-egorical variable. A ratio greater than 1 implies a higher probability for a union member of being represented in a certain category.

Conversely, a ratio less than 1 is a sign of a lower propensity for union members of giving a certain answer compared with non-members. As in the previous chapter, the data concern the period between 1999 and 2011 with a gap in 2010. The observations are again weighted using cross-sectional weights that ensure the rep-resentativity of the analyses for the wage-earners living on the Swiss soil.

Figure 5.1: Mean level and ratio of the proportions in four dimensions of political involvement between union members and non-members

Source: Swiss Household Panel (SHP)

The four graphs of figure 5.1 clearly show a higher level of po-litical involvement for union members when compared with non-members. In the first graph, union members are shown to report a higher level of interest in politics than non-members. Over the whole period, even though some fluctuations are noticeable, un-ion members show an average level of around 6 points on a scale from 0 to 10, while non-members present an average level of 5 points. Moreover, union members declare a higher feeling of po-litical influence, as depicted in the second representation. The dif-ference between the two groups is smaller, being around 0.5 points in 1999 and becoming less important in the following years.

Interestingly, for both categories of individuals, the feeling of po-litical influence increases almost linearly over time. The third graph illustrates that union members declare a higher level of par-ticipation in federal polls, showing an advantage of around 1 point in comparison with non-members over the whole period. The fourth graph shows similar findings when analyzing the voting be-havior in case of elections the day after the interview. However, in this graph, we also see that the advantage of union members re-garding the propensity to vote diminishes with time, passing from

around 1.2 times more in 1999 to 1.1 times more in 2011. Since, the “No vote” option is chosen by a small fraction of individuals, the line representing it is fluctuating. Over the whole period, a non-member, in comparison with a member, has twice more chances to choose the “No vote” answer option.

5.1.2POLITICAL ORIENTATION

After having considered the level of political involvement, we now compare the political orientation of union members and non-members. We start by analyzing a variable that captures the polit-ical position of an individual through the following question:

“When they talk about politics, people mention left and right. Per-sonally, where do you position yourself, 0 means "left" and 10

"right"?”. We then take into account a more concrete question by using the last variable we described in the previous sub-section:

“If there was an election for the National Council tomorrow, for which party would you vote?” From the possible answer options, we create three dichotomous variables that represent the vote for the two parties the two main union Confederations entertain a close relationship with (Socialist Party and Christian Democratic Party, cf. sub-section 2.1.1) and the vote for the main conservative party in Switzerland (Swiss People’s Party (known as SPD in Ger-man-speaking regions and as UDC in French- and Italian-speak-ing cantons)). Hence, the first dichotomous variable operational-izes the vote choice for the Socialist Party with two categories:

“Vote not for Socialist Party” and “Vote for Socialist Party”. The Socialist Party is the most important left-wing party in the Swiss political arena and has historical links to the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions, the largest peak organization in the country. The second binary outcome is constructed the same way regarding the vote for the Christian Democratic Party, which constitutes a cath-olic oriented party with close relationships with the confederation known today as “Travail Suisse” (known before as Swiss Christian Federation of Trade Unions). Likewise, a dichotomous variable

related to the vote behavior for the Swiss People’s Party is con-structed. In terms of voters share, this party represents the most important conservative force in the Swiss political arena, growing in importance in the last decades. It is also to note that the “Vote not for a given party” option includes the individuals that declare either a preference for another party or candidate or present them-selves as non-voters. Moreover, in questions regarding the politi-cal orientation, we have to be aware of the possible desirability bias that often affects the answers of individuals with right-wing preferences. The answers given by certain respondents are proba-bly more left-oriented than the real political preference. Hence, answers revealing a right-wing position and the vote for the Swiss People's Party may be underrepresented. However, we can con-sider the question related to the vote behavior in case of next-day elections as more reliable. It is more complicated to give a non-genuine answer on a very precise question that implies the choice of a well-defined party.

The graphs of figure 5.2 (on the next page) are related to the same period as the previous ones and use the same weighting pro-cedure previously described.

The first graph represents the mean political position of union members and non-members. We see that union members are, on average, 0.3 points more on the left than non-members. Interest-ingly, we see that both groups are below the neutral score 5, de-claring themselves more on the left than on the right. However, we also see a slow trend towards a shift to the right for both groups.

In the second graph, we see that union members have a higher probability (around 1.8 times higher in 1999) of declaring them-selves as voters of the Socialist Party than non-members. How-ever, we also notice that the trend is towards a diminution of the differential between the two groups, the ratio of the proportions decreasing from 1.8 in 1999 to 1.7 in 2011. The propensity for an alternative voting choice remains more or less the same over the period.

Figure 5.2: Mean political position and ratio of the proportions for different voting choices between union members and non-members

Source: Swiss Household Panel (SHP)

The third representation does not show marked differences between union members and non-members regarding the propen-sity to vote for the Christian Democratic Party. Over the whole period, union members have a slightly higher probability (around 1.1 times more) to opt for an alternative voting choice. The ratio related to the voting choice in favor of the Christian Democratic Party fluctuates around 1 over the years because of the small num-ber of union memnum-bers that choose this option.

Finally, the fourth graph shows that union members are un-derrepresented among the Swiss People's Party voters when com-pared with non-members (the graph is fluctuating because, in our sample, we have only few union members among the Swiss Peo-ple's party voters). The inverse is true for the chances of opting for another voting choice. These findings are in line with the con-clusions we draw from the first graph, union members being more on the left and thus having higher chances of voting for a left-wing party and are less likely to vote for a right-left-wing party. The enormous difference in the probability of voting for the Socialist Party is related to the narrow relationship this party entertains with

5.1.3SATISFACTION WITH DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS We now turn to the third and last class of political attitudes by considering two variables that capture the level of satisfaction with democratic institutions. The first variable operationalizes the con-cept of “Overall satisfaction with democracy” through the follow-ing question: “Overall, how satisfied are you with the way in which democracy works in our country, if 0 means "not at all satisfied"

and 10 "completely satisfied"?”. The second one analyzes more precisely the trust in the Federal Government by asking the re-spondent: “How much confidence do you have in The Federal Government (in Bern), if 0 means "no confidence" and 10 means

"full confidence"?”. In Switzerland, it is particularly pertinent to distinguish the level of satisfaction with the overall democratic system and the trust in the Federal Government. In fact, as de-scribed in sub-section 2.1.3, a distinctive feature of the Swiss dem-ocratic institutions is a participative system in which the citizens can propose themselves legislative initiatives and are often asked to vote on major political decisions. This system is independent of the power of the Government and is also used as a means to control the actions of the political parties.

Figure 5.3 (on the next page) shows the comparison of the mean level in these two domains between union members and non-members. Again, the analyses presented in the figure refer to the period between 1999 and 2011 with the exception of 2010 and are weighted using the cross-sectional weights provided by the SHP. The first graph shows very similar levels of satisfaction with democracy for union members and non-members. The trend shows an increase in the level of satisfaction in this domain for both groups. The evolution can be linked to the increase in the feeling of political influence cited before. The second graph also shows that the average level of trust union members and non-members put in the Government is similar in all years under ex-amination. The trend we observe for both is a decrease in the trust level between 1999 and 2004 followed by an increase of it from 2005 on.

Figure 5.3: Mean level of satisfaction with democracy and trust in Federal Government for union members and non-members

Source: Swiss Household Panel (SHP)