People, Parties, and Perceptions. Attitudes on Social Cohesion and Religion in Contemporary Switzerland

In many countries, the various crises of today are perceived as a challenge to social cohesion. Switzerland is rightly understood as an island of the blessed in many respects. However, even the wealthy and rather equal society experiences strong signs of pressure on its social and political fabrics. Party politics became more competitive and polarized. Concerning religion, Switzerland shows a long-lasting trend of de-churching combined with a growing religious diversity by migration making the religious-secular cleavage more salient. The proposed paper is based on a fresh representative survey – the Swiss Cohesion Monitoring 2025 – and presents findings about the subjective understanding of social cohesion among the Swiss people expressed in open ended question of the questionnaire. The presentation will address the question whether and if yes how the subjective interpretations of the much-used term “social cohesion” are related to religious affiliation and party preferences. Findings will contribute to the panels overarching question whether religion is a barrier or a facilitator to the trend of democratic backsliding.