Impacts of Courts on Policy Implementation in a Federal State: Evidence from Disability Insurance in Switzerland

Swiss cantons have extensive autonomy in implementing federal laws. This leads to heterogeneity in cantonal practices and policy outputs. This article explores the extent to which courts contribute to the convergence of cantonal outputs. It focuses on the disability insurance benefits granted by can...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Karin Byland, Roy Gava, Frédéric Varone
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Ubiquity Press 2015-12-01
Series:Yearbook of Swiss Administrative Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.ssas-yearbook.com/articles/86
Description
Summary:Swiss cantons have extensive autonomy in implementing federal laws. This leads to heterogeneity in cantonal practices and policy outputs. This article explores the extent to which courts contribute to the convergence of cantonal outputs. It focuses on the disability insurance benefits granted by cantonal administrations, and on the related judicial rulings by cantonal courts and the Federal Supreme Court. The findings suggest that judgments of the Federal Supreme Court have a limited but positive impact on the harmonization of cantonal outputs when a major policy change is implemented.
ISSN:2632-9255