Politics of Switzerland

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Switzerland
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Switzerland

Constitution Federal Council (members) Moritz Leuenberger (Pres. 06) Pascal Couchepin Samuel Schmid Micheline Calmy-Rey (VP 06) Christoph Blocher Hans-Rudolf Merz Doris Leuthard Federal Chancellor (list) Federal Assembly Council of States (members) National Council (members) Political parties Elections 2003 - 2007 Voting in Switzerland Federal judiciary Federal Supreme Court Federal Insurance Court Federal Criminal Court Federal Administrative Court Cantons Foreign relations Human rights
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Politics of Switzerland takes place in a framework of a federal parliamentary democratic republic, whereby the Federal Council of Switzerland is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Switzerland is the closest state in the world to a direct democracy. For any change in the constitution, a referendum is mandatory; for any change in a law, a referendum can be requested. Through referenda, citizens may challenge any law voted by federal parliament and through initiatives introduce amendments to the federal constitution, making Switzerland a direct democracy.

1 Direct democracy
2 Executive branch
3 Legislative branch
4 Political parties and elections
5 Judicial branch
6 Political conditions
- 6.1 Extremism
7 Energy politics
8 Notes
9 See also
10 External links

[edit] Direct democracy

Switzerland features a system of government not seen at the national level on any other place on Earth: direct democracy, sometimes called half-direct democracy (this could, or could not be correct as theoretically, one could state that the people have full power over the law). Referenda on the most important laws have been used since the 1848 constitution.

Any citizen may challenge a law that has been passed by parliament. If s/he is able to gather 50,000 signatures against the law within 100 days, a national vote has to be scheduled where voters decide by a simple majority whether to accept or reject the law.

Also, any citizen may seek a decision on an amendment they want to make to the constitution. For such an amendment initiative to be organised, the signatures of 100,000 voters must be collected within 18 months. Such a popular initiative may be formulated as a general proposal or - much more often - be put forward as a precise new text whose wording can no longer be changed by parliament and the government. After a successful vote gathering, the federal council may create a counterproposal to the proposed amendment and put it to vote on the same day. Such counterproposals are usually a compromise between the status quo and the wording of the initiative. Voters will again decide in a national vote whether to accept the initiative amendment, the counterproposal put forward by the government or both. If both are accepted, one has to additionally signal a preference. Initiatives have to be accepted by a double majority of both the popular votes and a majority of the states.

[edit] Executive branch

Main article: Swiss Federal Council

The Swiss Federal Council is a seven-member executive council ("cabinet") that heads the executive branch. Any Swiss citizen eligible to be a member of the National Council can be elected^[1]; candidates do not have to register for the election, or to actually be members of the National Council. The Federal Council is elected by the Federal Assembly for a four-year term. Present members are: Doris Leuthard, Samuel Schmid, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Pascal Couchepin, Christoph Blocher, Hans-Rudolf Merz and Moritz Leuenberger.

The largely ceremonial President of the Swiss Confederation and Vice-President are elected by the Federal Assembly from among the members of the Federal Council for one-year terms that run concurrently. The current (2006) President and Vice President are Moritz Leuenberger and Micheline Calmy-Rey, respectively.

The Swiss executive is one of the most stable governments worldwide. Since 1848, it has never been renewed entirely at the same time, providing a long-term continuity. From 1959 to 2003 the Federal Council was composed of a coalition of all major parties in the same ratio: 2 Free Democratic Party, 2 Social Democratic, 2 Christian Democratic, and 1 Swiss People's Party. Changes in the council occur, in practice, only if one of the members resigned; this member was then replaced by someone from the same party (and preferably also from the same language group and sex).

This "magic formula" has also been criticised in the 1960s for excluding leftist opposition parties, in the 1980s for excluding the emerging Green party, and after the 1999 election particularly by the People's Party, which had by then grown from the fourth largest to the largest party. In the elections of 2003 the People's Party (formerly the smallest of the 4 parties represented in the Federal Council) gained a plurality of seats in the National Council and received (effective January 1, 2004) a second seat in the Federal Council, reducing the share of the Christian Democratic party to 1 seat.

Curia Confoederationis Helveticae - Swiss parliament and government in Bern

[edit] Legislative branch

Switzerland has a bicameral parliament called the Federal Assembly, made up of:

the Council of States (46 seats - members serve four-year terms) and
the National Council (members are elected by popular vote on a basis of proportional representation to serve four-year terms)

The last elections to the National Council were held in 2003, see elections of 2003 for more details.

Most hearings in the parliament are open to everyone, including foreigners.

[edit] Political parties and elections

The following election results include names of political parties. See for additional information about parties the List of political parties in Switzerland. An overview on elections and election results is included in Elections in Switzerland.

Switzerland has a rich party landscape. The four parties represented in the Federal Council are generally called the government parties: Free Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party, Christian Democratic Party, and Swiss People's Party.

As of 2005 only the four government parties were represented in the Council of States. In the National Council the party landscape is more diverse with eight non-government parties having at least one seat.

Main article: Swiss federal election, 2003

[discuss] – [edit]
**Summary of the 19 October 2003 National Council of Switzerland election results**
Parties	Abbr.	Votes	%	+/- %	Seats	Change
Swiss People's Party	SVP/UDC	561817	26.6	+4.1%	55	+11
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland	SPS/PSS	490388	23.4	+0.9%	52	+1
Free Democratic Party of Switzerland	FDP/PRD	363643	17.3	-2.6%	36	-7
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland	CVP/PDC	302355	14.4	-1.4%	28	-7
Green Party of Switzerland	GPS/PES	155110	7.4	+2.4%	13	+4
Evangelical People's Party	EVP/PEV	47839	2.3	+0.5%	3	0
Liberal Party of Switzerland	LPS/PLS	45864	2.2	0.0%	4	-2
Federal Democratic Union	EDU/UDF	26586	1.3	+0.1%	2	+1
Swiss Democrats	SD/DS	20175	1.0	-0.8%	1	0
Swiss Labour Party	PdA/PST	14595	0.7	-0.3%	2	-1
Alternative List (include Socialist Green Alternatives of Zug)	AL	12523	0.6	+0.4%	1	+1
Solidarities	SOL	10563	0.5	0.0%	1	+1
Christian Social Party	CSP/PCS	7358	0.4	0.0%	1	0
Ticino League	LEGA	7304	0.4	-0.5%	1	-1
Freedom Party of Switzerland	FPS	3999	0.2	-0.7%	0	0
Total (turnout %)					200
Source: www.wahlen.ch/www.ch03.ch.

[discuss] – [edit]
**Summary of the 19 October 2003 Council of States of Switzerland election results**
Parties	Seats	Change
Swiss People's Party SVP/UDC	8	+1
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland SPS/PSS	9	+3
Free Democratic Party of Switzerland FDP/PRD	14	-4
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland CVP/PDC	15	0
Total	46

[edit] Judicial branch

Switzerland has a Federal Supreme Court, with judges elected for six-year terms by the Federal Assembly. The function of the Federal Supreme Court is to hear appeals of cantonal courts or the administrative rulings of the federal administration. The judges are elected by the Federal Assembly for six-year terms.

[edit] Political conditions

Although it has a diverse society, Switzerland has a stable government. Most voters support the government in the armed neutrality underlying its foreign and defense policies. Domestic policy poses some major problems, but the changing international environment has generated a significant reexamination of Swiss policy in key areas such as defense, neutrality, and immigration. Quadrennial national elections typically produce only marginal changes in party representation.

In recent years, Switzerland has seen a gradual shift in the party landscape. The rightist Swiss People's Party (SVP), traditionally the junior partner in the four-party coalition government, more than doubled its voting share from 11.0% in 1987 to 22.5% in 1999, thus overtaking its three coalition partners. This shift in voting shares put a strain on the "magic formula," the power-broking agreement of the four coalition parties. Since 1959 the seven-seat cabinet had comprised 2 Free Democrats, 2 Christian Democrats, 2 Social Democrats, and 1 Swiss People's Party, but in 2004, the Swiss People's Party took one seat from the Christian Democrats.

The Swiss Federal Constitution limits federal influence in the formulation of domestic policy and emphasizes the roles of private enterprise and cantonal government. However, the Confederation has been compelled to enlarge its policymaking powers in recent years to cope with national problems such as education, agriculture, health, energy, the environment, organized crime, and narcotics.

The Index of perception of corruption puts Switzerland among the least corrupt nations. In the 2005 survey, Switzerland ranks 7th (out of 158 surveyed), with 9.1 out of 10 possible points, representing an improvement of 0.4 points over the past four years.

Together with seven other European nations, Switzerland leads the 2005 index on Freedom of the Press published by Reporters Without Borders (with a score 0.5 points, zero being the perfect score).

[edit] Extremism

Political extremism is not a widespread phenomenon in Switzerland, although far-right extremism has increased slightly during the 2000s: the Swiss federal police counted 111 right extremist incidents in 2005, estimating that the number of members of the "right extremist scene" grew by 20% to some 1,200 (including loosely associated sympathisants reaching some 2,000, or 0.03% of the total population) in 2005. The emergence of the völkisch Partei National Orientierter Schweizer in 2000 has resulted in improved organization of the far right, but it has no noticeable impact on parliamentary or direct democracy. Far-right activists briefly won the attention of mainstream media for disrupting the 2005 celebration of the Swiss national holiday on the Rütli Meadow. Conversely, far left activism has shown a slight decrease, although an increasing tendency towards violence was observed. The federal police further recognizes some activity by extremist Islamist groups as well as extremist or violent ethnic Albanian, Turkish, Kurdish and Tamil groups which mostly remain under-cover and aim at funding their activities abroad.^[2]

[edit] Energy politics

The energy generated in Switzerland comprises around 40 percent nuclear power and 60 percent from hydroelectricity.

On May 18, 2003, two referenda regarding the future of nuclear power in Switzerland were held. The referendum Electricity Without Nuclear asked for a decision on a nuclear power phase-out and Moratorium Plus asked about an extension of an existing law forbidding the building of new nuclear power plants. Both were turned down: Moratorium Plus by a margin of 41.6% for and 58.4% opposed, and Electricity Without Nuclear by a margin of 33.7% for and 66.3% opposed. The former ten-year moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants was the result of a citizens' initiative voted on in 1990 which had passed with 54.5% Yes vs. 45.5% No votes (see Nuclear power phase-out in Switzerland for details).