Rootedness, Activism and Centralisation: The Case of the Swiss People’s Party

The Schweizerische Volkspartei/Union démocratique du centre (SVP/UDC, Swiss People’s Party) has increased its territorial extensiveness and organisational intensiveness in recent years, and professionalised its strategies of communication. This article analyses the dynamics characterising the SVP’s organisation, shows that it has embraced the “mass party” organisational model and assesses the extent to which it has centralised power at the federal level. Having considered both the party at national level and three of its most important cantonal branches, the article argues that the organisational dominance of the SVP’s central leadership will be hard to sustain in the future given the features of the Swiss political system and the country’s political culture.