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The rhetoric of participation constitutes one of the topics of institutional discourse in Switzerland. Citizen voting on questions of policy is understood as underpinning a unique political system, a semi-direct democracy which combines political stability with citizens’ regular participation in the decision-making process. In this participationist context, in which it seems difficult to question the centrality of the sovereign people, public supervision of direct democracy campaigns (referenda and popular initiatives) via the increasingly common mechanism of “state public relations” is in potential conflict with one of the components of the governmental coalition, the Swiss People’s Party (SVP). Via their popular initiative “Sovereignty of the people without governmental propaganda”, the leaders of that powerful political party, who come from from Zurich’s economic elites, are attempting to preserve their dominant position in managing citizen participation. The modalities of legitimate symbolic violence and the place of the state constitute one of the stakes in this confrontation between supporters and opponents of public intervention in direct democracy campaigns.