The degree to which the traditional family model is accepted and practiced in Switzerland strongly varies between different sub-units: While in the more progressive cantons and the more urban municipalities families increasingly deviate from the traditional norm, in many rural regions and the more conservative cantons traditional family norms are still dominant. This disconnect becomes particularly visible in public votes on referenda. Arguably, federalism and direct democracy lead to policies, which are strongly influenced by dominant values and norms prevailing in the respective political unit. The relevant factor for explaining policy change therefore is the pace in which social practices and norms develop. And connected to this, the degree to which such norms are challenged or reinforced in public discourses and political mobilization.
Focusing on the case of a school harmonization project (HarmoS), this paper comparatively investigates the political mobilization of family values in different discursive contexts. The analysis is based newspaper data derived from a Political Claims Analysis of regional newspapers on the referendum campaign against HarmoS in seven cantons (Bern, Fribourg, Luzern, St. Gallen, Thurgau, Zug and Zürich).
Although the inter-cantonal agreement concerned primarily technical issues such as a common school entry age and an equalization of educational levels, its opponents – mainly cantonal fractions of the populist peoples party (SVP) – managed to reframe the issue into a highly ideological subject about the role of the state and the family in the care and uprising of children. While this framing went practically unchallenged in the media debate everywhere, its effects on voters was strongly dependent on the prevailing norms of a canton: In cantonal contexts, where the discursive opportunities were strongly favorable to the family-responsibility and anti-statist frames, HarmoS failed at the polls.
