Clive H. Church

The dynamics of confederalism and federalism: Comparing Switzerland and the EU

Abstract This article outlines the modern historical evolution of the Swiss political system and describes the main features of its contemporary federalism. In particular, it focuses on how the division of competences and the distribution of power have changed over time, on the factors which have driven these changes, leading to a description of the current situation created by these developments. It then compares the Swiss experience with that of the European Union and draws some lessons from this for the debate on the evolution of the European Union and, in particular, on the adoption and the ratification of the Constitutional Treaty. Although it emphasizes the role of historical experiences and of political culture in shaping Swiss federalism and the difficulties, if not the impossibility, of replicating them in the European context, it concludes that the EU could learn from Switzerland but may not do so.

The qualities of validation

ABSTRACT Demands for enhanced quality and quality control in higher education, such as those contained in the 1987 White Paper, often involve increased stress on validation. This emphasis on a peculiarly British system of peer review of courses suggests that an examination of some of the qualities of validation may be helpful in ensuring that it continues to achieve the ends expected of it. The structure of validation generally requires action at course (or department), faculty and institutional levels. Validation can operate in at least three modes: initial approval of new courses, regular monitoring of performance and intermittent but more intensive inspections of course organisation and achievement. In all three modes the basic structures function in a way that uses specific inputs, processes and outputs. Amongst the inputs are admissions, resources, staffing and curricula. The processes involve such feedback mechanisms as continuous assessment together with staff development. Training in validation sk...

The Swiss Elections of 21 October 2007: Consensus Fights Back

On 21 October, for the fourth time in succession, the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) won a significant, and largely unexpected victory. At the same time the Social Democrats (SPS) did particularly badly, although their allies, the Greens (GPS), did well. The centre parties had mixed fortunes. Although the results did not do more than rebalance the existing polarisation, they highlighted significant changes going on in Swiss politics. These have became much more national than in the past and are dominated by a different, more European, style of conflictual populism. So it looked as though the old checks and balances form of Swiss consensus democracy was under threat. In fact the second round of Upper House elections saw the pendulum swinging back the other way, demonstrating a strong anti-SVP tendency. This re-assertion of traditional concordance politics, although not in the partisan form demanded by SVP hardliners, again came as a surprise to many. So too did the defeat of Christoph Blocher, the SVP Minister for Police and Justice, by a less confrontational SVP candidate, chosen by the Christian Democrats (CVP) and the SPS, when it came to the election of the Federal Council on 12–13 December. This further re-assertion of consensualism led the SVP to declare that it was going into opposition. So, it seems that although harmony and consensus will return to government, Swiss politics in general look likely to be increasingly polarised and confrontational. The SVP’s stance, which will be difficult to realise within the Swiss system, will still mean increased pressure on the other parties. However, while the renewed strength of Parliament and consensus suggests that there will not be major policy switches, the political system is likely to be subject to conflicting pressures over the next four years.

Behind the consociational screen: Politics in contemporary Switzerland

Existing approaches do not aid understanding of current developments in Switzerland because of their acceptance of consociationalism. This is less convincing and relevant than has been appreciated. Despite being redefined as decision‐making or consensus politics, it still ignores the nationally minded realities of Swiss political culture and its new problems. Instead of consociationalism eliminating political divisions in Switzerland new environmental issues and forces emerged from the 1970s. These now constitute a new element in Swiss politics at odds with the prevailing political culture. Yet they are also influenced by this and further growth depends on its adaptability.

The Swiss Elections of October 2003: Two Steps to System Change?

As in 1999, the results of the Swiss elections came as something of a shock to the many observers who expected only limited changes (Church 2000). In fact the 2003 election produced two dramatic developments. On the one hand there was another exceptional surge by the right-wing Swiss Peoples’ Party (SVP/UDC). This advance changed the balance of the political system. On the other hand, the temperature was further raised by the immediate and dramatic nomination of the SVP’s key figure, Christoph Blocher, to be the party’s second member of the seven-strong government. This was accompanied by the threat that, if refused, the party would withdraw from consensus government to go into all-out opposition. In the event this threat transformed a formality into a full-blown crisis which did, indeed, result in Blocher replacing a sitting Christian Democrat Minister, with unpredictable consequences. So, for once, events after 19 October 2003 proved as significant as those of the elections themselves, not to mention the context and the campaign. And, although it is always dangerous to exaggerate the extent of change in Swiss politics, taken together, the two developments do seem to have taken the country to the verge of systemic change. They represent a major electoral shift and the consolidation of new forms of party politics, calling existing consensualism into question. However, where exactly this turn of events will lead remains uncertain.

The swiss elections of October 1999: Learning to live in more interesting times

As is normal in Switzerland, the year started with expectations of real change after the elections. Yet, even though these were higher than usual, they soon faded. Indeed, interest in the elections seemed to be even lower than normal. However, this lack of interest was to be confounded. Not merely did the actual outcome, involving as it did the dramatic rise of the right-wing Swiss Peoples Party (SVP) to be virtually the largest party in the country, take many people even more by surprise than did Social Democratic (SPS) gains in 1995, but the aftermath left a real sense of uncertainty. For the first time in 40 years there was a possibility that sitting federal councillors might be thrown out of government, calling into question the whole system of consensus government. All this not merely replaced disinterest by fevered excitement but seems to have opened a new and testing chapter in Swiss political life. Swiss politics may, at last, have succumbed to the Chinese curse of having to live in interesting times. So, while the establishment did rally on 15 December to shore up the magic formula, and may well avoid real system change, at least until the next elections in 2003, things have fundamentally altered. The establishment now has to face up to a strong, growing and dynamic party which, under the guise of defending tradition, is actually calling the foundations of the system into question, presenting it with challenges to which it presently has few responses. The opening up of the likelihood of change, over which the system may have little control, has brought a new atmosphere of tension and uncertainty. For many this is the more unsettling for being somewhat unexpected. These changes were, in fact, a double surprise. This was not only because change has been discounted over the summer of 1999 but because expectations of parliamentary polarisation after 1995 had not really materialised either. The necessity of collaboration to achieve a majority inside the two Chambers meant that there was, apparently, business as

The development of the Swiss green party

The Swiss Green Party is neither well known nor well understood, yet its development has been impressive and significant. Environmentalism began locally in the 1970s and by the mid‐1980s had generated an expanding national party, the GPS, with a firm electoral base. The general elections of October 1991 showed that the party had gone on successfully to survive a recent decline in the salience of environmental issues and its first electoral losses at cantonal level. Its success rests in part on a flexible federal organisational base and a programme that has widened to include a wide range of Swiss issues as well as strategic and tactical green concerns. This has shown itself in a relatively restrained political style. Its limitations lie in its effects on the political agenda and its inability to penetrate the magic circle of government. This reflects the way in which the Swiss political system has both encouraged the emergence of the GPS but also places barriers in the way of its future development. Probl...

Pollution, parties and policies in Eastern Europe

Ecocide in the USSR: Health and Nature tinder Siege by Murray Feshbach and Alfred Friendly, Jnr. London: Aurum Press, 1992. Pp.xi + 376; index. £19.95 (hardback). ISBN 1 8541 0230 3. Energy and Environmental Conflicts in East/Central Europe: The Case of Power Generation by Jeremy Russell (RIIA Energy and Environmental Programme 2). London: RIIA/World Conservation Union, 1991. Pp.viii + 77; £10 (paperback). ISBN 0 905031 39 3. Paradise Deferred: Environmental Policymaking in Central and Eastern Europe by Duncan Fisher (RIIA Energy and Environmental Programme 3). London: RIIA/Ecological Studies Institute, 1992. Pp.x + 82; £10 (paperback). ISBN 0 905031 47 4.

Reviews : Jonathan Steinberg, Why Switzerland?, 2 edn, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-48453-7 (pbk), 1996; xx + 300 pp.; £14.95

an Anabaptist community at Auspitz, which itself consisted of a breakaway group from Austerlitz. Hutter and most of his closest associates and supporters came from the Puster Valley in the South Tyrol. Packull writes about life in underground networks in the Tyrol, the reaction of the local population to the Anabaptists, the little-documented role of women among the Hutterites, the brutal programme of suppression co-ordinated by Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria, the resulting shift of Tyrolese Anabaptist leaders and adherents to Moravia, missionary expeditions back to their homeland and the capture and martyrdom of many leaders (including Hutter). A major source for Packull’s history is the collections of letters, many smuggled out of prisons, in which believers in the Tyrol told their co-religionists in Moravia about their suffering and their faith. These letters played an important role in forming a strong sense of Hutterite identity. The book ends with a chapter on the demise of the Gabrielites and the Philipites. Packull’s careful evaluation of available primary sources, concern

States and the constitutionalization of international relations: A view from the mid‐Atlantic

Michael J. Baun, An Imperfect Union: The Maastricht Treaty and the New Politics of European Integration (Westview, Boulder, CO, 1996), xvi + 182 pp., ISBN 0–8133–2710–5 (hb), 0–8133–2711–3 (pb) Michael Calingaert, European Integration. Progress, Prospects and US Interests (Westview, Boulder, CO, 1996), xiii +223 pp., ISBN 0–8133–2953–1 (hb), 0–8133–2954‐X (pb) Brian Hocking and Michael Smith, Beyond Foreign Economic Policy. The United States, the Single European Market and the Changing World Economy (Pinter, London, 1997), 216 pp., ISBN 185567–269–3 John Peterson, Europe and America: The Prospects for Partnership (Routledge, London, 1996, 2nd edn), xii +240 pp., ISBN 0–415–14653–4 (hb), 0–415–13864–7 (pb)