ABSTRACT
Political parties play a central role in classic consociational countries. On their shoulders falls the duty to control their followers, and at the same time to mediate conflicts prevalent in society. While accommodative decision-making is certainly a characteristic element in Swiss democracy, the role political parties play in these processes is less clear. There are several institutional and political factors, which together may well explain the endemic weakness of Swiss political parties. Their limited role in the accommodating decision-making processes questions the strict applicability of the traditional consociational model to Switzerland. Even without this element, Switzerland has often been considered a borderline case for consociationalist theory.
