Judicialisation and Direct Democracy : Switzerland’s Ban on Minaret Construction

Résumé 0

Launched by representatives from the Union démocratique du centre (UDC) with the aim of circumventing political and judicial decisions made at both local and national levels, the 2009 federal popular initiative calling for a ban on the construction of minarets rekindled the stigmatisation of Muslims living in Switzerland. Within the prevalent institutional configuration it moreover revived controversies surrounding issues such as direct democracy versus fundamental rights, or “the will of the people” versus “the power of the judges”, whether national or international. “Judicialisation” is a polysemous concept. It is not understood here as the transfer to the courts of matters of political significance – in this instance the public regulation of religion – but as a process of juridification (or juridicalisation) in which court rulings were constantly anticipated in the political debate provoked by the popular initiative.