Swiss economic policy moves young Swiss people.
What do young Swiss people think about Swiss economic policy? Together with the newly founded Institute for Swiss Economic Policy (IWP) at the University of Lucerne, we took the pulse of 16 to 30-year-old Swiss citizens. A representative opinion poll of around 1,000 adolescents and young adults shows that interest is considerable and opinion nuanced.
The study shows how Swiss economic policy is perceived by 16-30 year-old Swiss people. We surveyed motives, attitudes, values and experiences about the Swiss economy in order to lay the foundation for dialogue about Swiss economic policy. Five findings stand out:
- Young Swiss people agree that economic policy solutions are needed for current challenges. This is an incentive for them to acquire more economic policy knowledge.
- In addition to the “mega-trend” issues such as environmental and climate protection or equal opportunities in work and education, they also count the consequences of rising public debt or the safeguarding of old-age pensions among the urgent problems.
- For them, it is clear that the Swiss model of success works. Switzerland is innovative, direct democracy is capable of overcoming challenges. The majority of young people also see Switzerland’s federalism as a strength, because it facilitates citizen-oriented politics. However, young people criticise its inertia.
- According to them, social mobility (upwards) requires diligence, the right network and a bit of luck. At the same time, they are aware that not only academics are needed, but also craftsmen. The dual education system is central to them.
- Overall, they think the Swiss tax system is good compared to other countries. Potential for improvement: more transparency in government spending.
You can find more exciting insights here (in German) – and also all the details on the representative opinion survey.
We are very pleased that we were able to initiate a dialogue with young Swiss people on Swiss economic policy for the Institute for Swiss Economic Policy (IWP). The needs of young people have been identified. Now we can get to work on shaping the Swiss economic policy of the future.
René Scheu, Managing Director of the IWP, underlines the great cooperation and the importance of the dialogue: “With quantitative and qualitative procedures, we were able to quickly and easily gain evidence-based insights into Swiss economic policy among youth and young adults with gfs.bern. We have now laid a foundation for talking to them about the future of Swiss economic policy.”
We thank the newly founded Institute for Swiss Economic Policy (University of Lucerne) for the excellent cooperation! It was fun!
