SWISS TRANSPORT POLICY FOR EUROPE - FEDERALISM AND THE DOMINANCE OF LOCAL-ISSUES

This paper argues that as a function of the federalist structure of Sw itzerland, policy projects are treated as if they were local public go ods. In case of transport policy proposals with important spatial exte rnalities, this may prove to be fatal for the integration of Swiss tra nsport infrastructure into the European transport networks. Empirical evidence for the relevance of local issues is given in this paper for five votes on road-transport issues with a European impact in Switzerl and in 1984 and 1990. It is concluded that European transport infrastr ucture networks risk to be incomplete if federalist elements in nation al decision-making lead to a dominance of local issues.