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1. Background

Switzerland has a unique institutional set up among democracies. 2 It is a federal republic combining perfect bicameralism, semi-presidentialism, and the extensive use of direct democracy. The 200-seat lower house of parliament, the National Council, represents the Swiss people as a whole, while the 46-seat upper house, the Council of States, represents the cantons. As both are directly elected on a cantonal basis, the only real difference between them is that National Council seats are allocated to cantons in proportion to population size, whereas each canton has two seats in the Council of States regardless of its population. 3 The electoral system for the lower house is an open list system of proportional representation that allows for an ample degree of preferential voting. Because many cantons are small, the average district magnitude is rather small, and the overall proportionality of the system is lower than in other political systems using PR. There is not a uniform electoral system for the Council of States as this is a matter of cantonal law, but all cantons bar one use a two-round majority system. Most cantons hold elections for the Council of States at the same time as the election for the National Council, but two cantons and one half-canton hold elections for the upper house some months earlier. Apart from those exceptions, federal parliamentary elections are held every four years on the third Sunday in October. The seven-member collegial executive, the Federal Council, is elected in December following the federal election. Once elected, the Federal Council cannot be brought down by the parliament. The absence of the …