Research

The center’s research focuses on federalism and decentralisation, management of diversity and conflict resolution, norms and processes of political decision-making, including fiscal questions and resource distribution, democracy and fundamental rights.

Currently the IRCC is part of various international and national research projects.

  • How does Switzerland speak? Consensus democracy, plurilingualism and political participation

    ‘How does Switzerland speak? Consensus democracy, plurilingualism and political participation’ is an interdisciplinary research project.

    This research is a sub-project of the research on the ‘Future of Switzerland’ conducted at the University of Fribourg. It is being conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Multilingualism. It addresses the question of the link between plurilingualism, multilingualism, political institutions and legal realities in Switzerland.

    The project deals with the interaction between language(s) and institutional conditions at different levels of Swiss democracy, based on a literature review and various case studies. The aim is to understand how people talk to each other (politically) in (plurilingual) Switzerland by looking at the way in which federalism and multilingualism, consensus and polarisation, and social cohesion and societal change are articulated.

    The project will run from February 2024 to December 2026. It is led at the IRCC by Dr. Verena Richardier.

  • Legitimate Crisis Governance in Multilevel Systems (LEGITIMULT)

    The IRCC, as the scientific lead of a research consortium of eleven members, conducts research on the Horizon Europe Programme of Legitimate Crisis Governance in Multilevel Systems – LEGITIMULT, funded by the European Commission and the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). Specifically, the IRCC takes the lead on the topic of The Making and Breaking of Rules in Crisis Situations: The Rule of Law and Democratic Participation.

    The project aims to develop a concept of legitimate crisis governance, as it is crucial for maintaining democratic standards in crisis situations and prevents social fragmentation and alienation.

    LEGITIMULT will be running for three years, starting from October 2022 and has a budget of €2.994.887.

     Discover LEGITIMULT

  • Power-Sharing for Peace

    "Between Adoptability and Durability in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq" is a Swiss Network for International Studies funded project, in which the IRCC is partnering with five other institutions from Switzerland, Canada, Lebanon and Iraq. Its goal is to explore the challenges of power-sharing adoptability and durability in the Middle-East.

    The project will be conducted by an international research team consisting of researchers from Switzerland, Canada, Lebanon and Iraq, who will work with a large number of civil society organisations in order to examine their expectations on power-sharing arrangements, as well as their assessment of its shortcomings in the case countries.

    The project will last two years and has started in September 2022. The total budget is €282.000.

  • Local Government and the Changing Urban-Rural Interplay (LoGov)

    The IRCC is a member of the Local Government and the Changing Urban-Rural Interplay (LoGov) consortium. LoGov aims to provide solutions for local governments to address this changing interplay and to strengthen collaborative research through staff exchanges between the project partners. LoGov identifies, evaluates, compares and shares innovative practices that cope with the impact of changing urban-rural relations. With 18 partners from six continents, LoGov’s comparative research draws on a wealth of different experiences and a truly global exchange of knowledge. 

    The LoGov project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (MSCA-RISE) programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) grant agreement No 823961. It started on 01 February 2019 and will end in September 2024. Discover LoGov