Do radical right populist parties matter? The influence of the Swiss SVP on policy-making

In the last 30 years, radical right populist parties (RRPP) have emerged, developed, and strengthened their electoral weight in Europe (Mudde, 2013). A paradox is often raised when considering RRPP: while these parties are often described as being a threat to democracy (e.g. Albertazzi and Mueller, 2013), the exaltation of democratic values is a core feature of this political family (e.g. Mudde, 2007). Theoretical and empirical studies on populism are widespread in the scientific literature: the leaders, the discourses, the communication style, the militants, the electorate, the organization and the history of populist parties and movements have been largely investigated. Yet, their effect on democracy remains only partially explored. This paper proposes to answer the following question: do RRPP matter? More specifically, the influence of RRPP on policy-making is examined in order to discover if and how these parties manage to contribute to the policy-making process. This paper investigates the case of the Swiss Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP). This case offers an ideal framework to better understand the influence of RRPP since the party has always been a member of the coalition government and compete in a direct democracy context. We thus have the possibility to assess its indirect but also its direct influence on the policy-making. Thanks to data obtained through interviews conducted with Swiss elected officials and through a documents analysis, SVP major electoral pledges (2007-2011 / 2011-2015) in the law and order public policy sector are traced. This approach helps to open the black box between the electoral campaign and the adoption of decisions in order to discover if and how the Populist Party exercise its influence on the policy-making and at which particular stage. The fine-grained analysis reveals that the party’s influence is the strongest at the problematization and agenda-setting stages while the direct influence on the adopted decisions is quite weak, notably because of its populist style. Nevertheless, when using the tools of direct democracy, the Swiss SVP manages to be influential on the whole process but at the price of a long and time-consuming process. This length is usual when direct democracy is mobilized but is still amplified when related to RRPP. Therefore, a “populist time” of public action can be highlighted.