SWITZERLAND

Evening Star, Issue 20117, 6 March 1929, Page 14

SWITZERLAND

REPUBLIC WITHOUT A PRESIDENT CHAIRMEN CHANGE OVER EVERY TWELVE MONTHS. Who is the President of Switzerland? The question would be a “ poser ” tor most of ns. We can name, the President of France, of the United States, and of Germany. How is it that the man who represents an important European nation is not known—and is never known—to the general public? A contributor to the 1 Observer ’ mentioned this peculiar circumstance recently, and his observations have brought forth an interesting letter iron one of the London readers of the famous Sunday newspaper, who writes:—■ “‘Observer’s’ reference to the ignorance manifested concerning the identity of the ‘ President of Switzerland ’ is interesting, but the reason for that ignorance is not far to seek. For, strictly speaking, there is no such office as that of President of the Swiss Confederation. “Switzerland, in lad. has an executive system which is unique in the modern world. The executive power in Switzerland, instead of being, as it is in practice in every oilier constitutional State in the world to-day, concentrated in the hands of one man, is dispersed among seven holders of it. These seven members of the Swiss Executive are collectively known as the Federal Council. This Cabinet, as we should call it, is elected at the beginning of each parliamentary term (three years) by the Federal Assembly—that _ is, the two Houses (National Council and Council of States) sitting together. But though the Federal Council is elected by the Federal Assembly, it is not disraissible thereby within the three years mentioned. Hence the only circumstance which can prevent it holding office for three years is a previous dissolution of

the Houses. But at the opening of (lie next parliamentary term the members of the Federal Council may, and generally do. submit themselves for reelection, anti in this way some of them have held office uninterruptedly for as long as fifteen years. “Now, because there are certain duties that it is clearly impossible for seven men to perform simultaneously, one of the seven is chosen by the National Assembly to act as Chairman of the Council for one year only. In this case Swiss democracy insists upon the principle of rotation, and no man is allowed to hold this office of Chairman for more than one year in succession. This is the officer often referred to as the President of Switzerland, hut this he is not. He gets by way of salary only the equivalent of £6O a year more than the rest (who get_ £1,000). and, ns the late Woodrow Wilson said, his precedence over the others is merely formal; he is in no sense the ‘ Chief Executive.’ “ Is it surprising, then, that M. Haab and Ids predecessors should be unknown quantities outside Switzerland? Yet it is this very absence of personalities which makes the Swiss Executive so interesting to students of comparative politics. The framers of the Swiss Constitution of 1874 would appear to have succeeded in a project which has battled the ingenuity of all previous statesmanship. and especially that of France namely, to combine, the merits and exclude the defects of both the parliamentary and non-parliamentary executive systems, ns wc see them at work respectively in the United Kingdom and the United States. At all events, the Swiss indubitably succeed in concealing the identity of their officials beneath the cloak of a diffused executive power, which is the only true definition of extant 'Republicanism.”