ABSTRACT
When a vote on a foreign policy decision is pending in Switzerland, advocates as well as opponents play it up as a life or death matter. Take, for example, the vote on EEA entry in 1992. During the campaign, a few opponents labelled the federal government a traitor. Yet similar bare-fisted tactics have also been used to fight other referenda with foreign policy overtones. Prominent members of Parliament throw their political weight into the balance and use down-to-earth arguments to try and convince opponents. Parties and interest groups take positions on proposals in the hope of mobilising members and sympathisers. The mass media report quite often during these ‘foreign policy boom periods’. Newspapers daily print numerous letters to the editor and, for once, fail to mourn the drop in advertising revenue.
