Switzerland is a federal republic, and perhaps the closest state in the world to a direct democracy, as for any change in the constitution, a referendum is mandatory; for any change in a law, a referendum can be requested - in practice, the people has the last word in every change of law some interest group disagrees with.

Table of contents

1 Executive branch 2 Legislative branch 3 Judicial branch 4 Political conditions 5 Political parties 5.1 Names in the national languages 6 External links

Executive branch

The current President of the Confederation is Joseph Deiss and his deputy is Samuel Schmid. The cabinet is the Swiss Federal Council, which is elected by the Federal Assembly from among its own members for a four-year term. Present members beside president and vice-president: Micheline Calmy-Rey, Pascal Couchepin, Christoph Blocher, Hans-Rudolf Merz and Moritz Leuenberger. See also: List of members of the Swiss Federal Council.

The president and vice president elected by the Federal Assembly from among the members of the Federal Council for one-year terms that run concurrently.

The Swiss cabinet is one of the most stable governments worldwide: From 1959 to 2003 the Federal Council was composed of a coalition of all major parties in the same ratio (2 Radical Free Party, 2 Social Democratic, 2 Christian Democratic, 1 Swiss People's Party). Changes in the cabinet occurred in practice only, if one of the members resigned - this member was then replaced by someone from the same party (and preferably also 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 rightist 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.

Legislative branch

Switzerland has a bicameral parliament, consisting of the

• 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.

Judicial branch

Federal Supreme Court, judges elected for six-year terms by the Federal Assembly

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 no 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 has put a strain on the "magic formula," the power-broking agreement of the four coalition parties (Since 1959 the seven-seat cabinet comprises 2 Free Democrats, 2 Christian Democrats, 2 Social Democrats, and 1 SVP). Recent cantonal elections results suggest that the SVP is likely to increase its voting share again in the 2003 federal elections, but it remains to be seen whether the magic formula will yield to accord it a second seat on the cabinet.

The 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, energy, environment, organized crime, and narcotics.

Political parties

Party				Members in
Abbr	Name	W	President	F ¹	S ²	N ³
CVP/PDC	Christian Democratic People's Party	[1]	Philipp Stähelin	1	15	28
FDP/PRD	Free Democratic Party 4	[1]	Christiane Langenberger	2	14	36
SPS/PSS	Social Democratic Party	[1]	Christiane Brunner	2	9	52
SVP/UDC	Swiss People's Party	[1]	Ueli Maurer	2	8	55
EVP/PEV	Evangelical People's Party	[1]	Ruedi Aeschbacher	0	0	3
FPS	Freedom Party	[1]		0	0	0
Greens	Green Party	[1]	Ruth Genner and Patrice Mugny	0	0	13
LPS/PLS	Liberal Party	[1]	Claude Ruey	0	0	4
SD/DS	Swiss Democratic Party			0	0	1
Lega	Ticino League	[1]		0	0	1
EDU/UDF	Union of Federal Democrats			0	0	2
PdA/PST	Workers' Party			0	0	2

Notes: ¹ Federal Council since 1959; ² Council of States, 2003; ³ National Council 2003 (members of party or caucus)
⁴ also rendered as: Radical Free Democratic Party or Liberal Democratic Party

Names in the national languages

Abbr	Party	German language name	French	Italian	Romansh
CVP/PDC	Christian Democratic People's Party	Christlichdemokratische Volkspartei der Schweiz or CVP	Parti Démocrate-Chrétien Suisse or PDC	Partito Democratico-Cristiano Popolare Svizzero or PDC	Partida Cristiandemocratica dalla Svizra or PCD
FDP/PRD	Free Democratic Party ¹	Freisinnig-Demokratische Partei der Schweiz or FDP	Parti radical-démocratique suisse or PRD	Partito Liberal-Radicale Svizzero or PLR
SPS/PSS	Social Democratic Party	Sozialdemokratische Partei der Schweiz or SPS	Parti Socialiste Suisse or PSS	Partito Socialista Svizzero or PSS	Partida Socialdemocratica de la Svizra or PSS
SVP/UDC	Swiss People's Party	Schweizerische Volkspartei or SVP	Union Démocratique du Centre or UDC	Unione Democratica del Centro or UDC	Uniun Democratica dal Center or UDC
EVP/PEV	Evangelical People's Party	Evangelische Volkspartei der Schweiz or EVP	Parti Evangelique Suisse or PEV	Partito Evangelico Svizzero or PEV
FPS	Freedom Party	Freiheits-Partei der Schweiz or FPS
Greens	Green Party	Grüne Partei der Schweiz or Grüne	Parti Ecologiste Suisse or Les Verts	Partito Ecologista Svizzero or I Verdi	Partida Ecologica Svizra or La Verda
LPS/PLS	Liberal Party	Liberale Partei der Schweiz or LPS	Parti liberal suisse or PLS	Partito Liberale Svizzero or PLS
SD/DS	Swiss Democratic Party	Schweizer Demokraten or SD	Démocrates Suisses or DS	Democratici Svizzeri or DS
Lega	Ticino League	n/a	n/a	Lega dei Ticinesi	n/a
EDU/UDF	Union of Federal Democrats	Eidgenössisch-Demokratische Union or EDU	Union Démocratique Fédérale or UDF	Unione Democratica Federale or UDF
PdA/PST	Workers' Party	Partei der Arbeit der Schweiz or PdAdS	Parti suisse du travail or PST	Partito Svizzero del Lavoro or PSdL

¹ also rendered as: Radical Free Democratic Party or Liberal Democratic Party

External links

• http://www.admin.ch

See also : International relations of Switzerland, Switzerland