Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho

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DEMOCRACY TODAY
• The cantonal and municipal actors are also key actors in political
communication. A lot of local committees and parties’ sections send
releases to the press.
• The international sources, very important and usually considered
as references in the debate about national politics, are taken into
account. In fact, Saint-Galler Tagblatt gives more information about
EU GMO legislation than Spanish regional journals. As we know,
Spain is an EU member and Switzerland only cooperates with EU
in some policies.
• Saint-Galler Tagblatt offers more information than El Periódico or La
•
Opinión about foreign GMO producers like India, Panamá, South
Africa, Brazil, Argentina and resistance to European Commission decisions
about GMO plants in neighbour countries (Austria, Germany,…).
International conferences of WTO, FAO or even the International
Conference of Bodensee Regions are considered as important sources
of information.
In contrast with other democratic countries, where members of gov-
ernment and main political parties concentrate the media’s attention,
Swiss public sphere of deliberation is occupied by a great number of
different political actors.
• Federal Conseil’s members don’t take part directly in the debate about
GMO plants. On the contrary, we notice some political interventions of
the executive institutions and leaders of other States or multinational
organisations in our press analysis.
• The presence of other social or civic organisations doesn’t mean a
reduction of the role of the parties. On the contrary, the pressure
that popular initiative exerts over parties and over the whole political
system coincides with an increasing number of parties’ assemblies
and press releases.
• Democratic tools force the parties to be clear with regards to their
own position, something important when unpopular measures are
being discussed.
• There is an increasing transparency in SVP and CVP positions. At
the beginning they where doubtful or didn’t want to state an official
position about such a topic, which divides their political supporters
(farmers, Catholics, big companies,…).