Analyzing Discourse Networks –the Politics of Climate Change Mitigation in Switzerland

The analysis of discourse networks is a useful instrument for understanding the conditions under which specific political decisions are made. Cleavages often offer a helpful explanation for general contestations over specific policy issues. Political actors tend to formulate their policy preferences according to their positioning in a political space that is constituted by the most relevant political cleavages. However, as cleavages are usually stable over time, they are not sufficient to explain short to medium term dynamics in policy processes. Thus, it is important to also consider the political context of a policy i.e. issue linking and actor constellations. This paper investigates the Swiss policy discourse on the revision of the CO₂-Act between 2009 and 2013, which is the centerpiece of climate change mitigation politics in Switzerland. Specifically, it asks to what extent the discourse on climate change politics can be explained by divisions over general value orientations manifested in political cleavages or by the political context. Methodically, a combination of discourse network analysis and inferential network modelling allows to analyze what kind of political actors support which policy preferences and why. Discourse network analysis is helpful for mapping ideological relationships and identifying actor coalitions; inferential network analysis enables to model the process of formation of ideological ties. The study expects to demonstrate the significance of structural characteristics of the policy discourse. Whereas general political cleavages are important to understand the division over climate change politics on a general level, the political context plays an important role in the policy discourse when it comes to specific objectives and instruments.