Talk:Politics of Switzerland

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See the discussion at the FDP page. For the time being I suggest we wait for the answer of the FDP and then make definitive choices. In the note I will add Freethinking Democratic Party as one of the translations used. Gangulf 18:53, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Economic Policies

I'm not clear on whether Switzerland's famous "neutrality" also includes economic protectionism (the other half of the perjorative "isolationism". A section on Swiss economic policies would be informative. --Tokalon73 12:30, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "The people"?

Perhaps a clarification of who constitutes "the people" is in order. 1.5 million Swiss residents are not citizens even though they were born in the country and thus have no citizenship rights. [1] DHN 20:49, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

this is also misleading. The 1.5 Million include all resident foreigners, including those that arrived last week, and including children. The number of people born in, but not citizens of Switzerland is much smaller. Anybody who has grown up in Switzerland and without a criminal record may receive citizenship almost certainly upon reaching 18, if they actively apply for it. Many are deterred because they would lose their original citizenship, and thus remain non-Swiss voluntarily. This should be discussed on Demographics of Switzerland. 83.77.217.223 14:42, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed Merge

It was suggested that Voting in Switzerland be merged into the Switzerland main article but I think that it might be better to merge it with this article instead. Any thoughtsHdstubbs 02:53, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The idea is good, but looking at the current length of Voting in Switzerland, plus what is missing for now, I think creating a stub here with a redirect to the "main" article would be better than a merge. Schutz 12:25, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
Agreed. I will take down the merger tag. Hdstubbs 18:28, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Deletion

"In practice, the people have the last word in every change of law if an interest group disagrees with."

I deleted above quote because it makes no sense. Hdstubbs 02:59, 1 February 2006 (UTC)Feel free to put it back into the article when it has a subject. Hdstubbs 02:59, 1 February 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Qualifications of Federal Councillors

What are the qualifications to become a member of the Federal Council ? More specifically, do members of the Federal Council have to be elected members of the Federal Assembly or not? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 161.24.19.82 (talk • contribs) 18:00, 20 February 2006

No, one must only be a Swiss citizen, eligible (not necessarily elected) to the National Council. I have added this information to the article (it can also be found in the Swiss Federal Council article). Schutz 10:14, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
Only highly qualified may apply.  ;-)
Swiss Federal Council was recently expanded and is quite informative. One might add that a limitation that only one member per canton may be elected was modified and then dropped a couple of years ago. -- User:Docu

[edit] No overriding article on Swiss referendum

Numerous countries have an article on referendum. Given the Swiss use of them, I would have thought there would be one for Swiss. Something to think about anyway. Referendums in Switzerland. --Midnighttonight 08:16, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Election and the 1999 Peoples party, lack of clarity

As of September 20, this entry is unclear:

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.

It is not clear by what measure the People's party in 1999 is the largest party, and useful to know: is it by votes in the election, seats won in the National Council, or the Council of States, or both houses combined, or some other measure? Yellowdesk 19:54, 20 September 2006 (UTC) tyler snyder smells

[edit] Really unseen?

>Switzerland features a system of government not seen at the national level on any other place on Earth: direct democracy

I've read the paragraph and it doesn't seem to me that Switzerland is unique in the world, i.e. in Italy people can play a role in the legislative process about in the same way: propose a law with 50000 signatures, ask for a referendum against an existing law (with no time limits) and repel a change to the constitution with a referendum. You should explain why a Swiss situation is different or remove this statement.

Tcp-ip 21:47, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Are the referendum results in Italy binding? Many countries feature some kind of referendum where the results serves merely as something like a recommendation. In Switzerland, it's absolutely binding; if a law is rejected by popular vote, the government can't change this - the law is gone. Also, the Swiss can't propose a law at the national level, but amendments to the constitution, which is a level above mere laws, and the decision of popular votes again is absolutely binding. Can you give sources regarding the role of direct democracy in Italy? This is new to me and I think it's very interesting. Anyway, combined with the unique collective head of state, the Swiss Federal Council, the Swiss system as a whole certainly is not seen in Italy or anywhere else. Gestumblindi (talk) 02:31, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
yes, the result is binding. About sources, you can find something on Wikipedia itself (here). If you can read italian, here is the complete law about direct democracy. Tcp-ip (talk) 21:44, 26 April 2008 (UTC)