Major Changes Without Regime Shifts:Switzerland and Japan in Comparative Perspective

The literature on regime shift suggests that Japan, and perhaps also Switzerland, have experienced a shift in their political systems. In this contribution, it is argued that both political systems underwent considerable change. However, this change did not represent regime shift in terms of a break with the past. Compared to other established democracies in the OECD country group, the changes to various aspects of the political systems have been similar in magnitude and type in both countries. Among OECD members, similar new elements have been layered on to stable cores of pre‐existing institutions, actor constellations and policies differing vastly in international comparison. Therewith, most countries moved in comparable directions without significantly changing their relative position within the group of established democracies