Rothenthurm: A Green "Miracle" at No Cost? A Statistical Analysis of the Voting on the Rothenthurm Initiative, Based on 2,920 Communities

To investigate to what extent the Swiss population "thinks Green" (ie, is ecology-conscious) & how far this translates into action, the 1987 vote in favor of the Rothenthurm Initiative is analyzed. By this vote, the army was denied the use of certain land, in order to preserve it as a natural area. It is shown that the acceptance of the initiative was initially due to the mobilization of Green support from the conservative milieu. This mobilization can be explained by the fact that the initiative did not imply high, long-term social costs; consequently, it did not hinder the transposition of "thinking Green" into "deciding Green." A comparison with other projected legislation concerning the environment shows that, in the conservative segment of the population, the pertinence of ecologically-oriented action is unstable: socially "burdened" proposals are less likely to be transposed into concrete action. Although Rothenthurm was a victory, it is not necessarily a basis for optimism. 4 Tables. Modified HA