Suchergebnisse

After outlining the principle of armed neutrality & the concept of the civilian soldier which lie at the heart of the Swiss military system, strains on the system are discussed. The Swiss military system not only suffers from a decline in efficiency, but more seriously, from a crisis of legitimacy. Indicators of the latter crisis are discussed: dissatisfaction of the younger generation with the ideology of their parents, declining numbers in soldiers eligible for service, conscientious objectors, recruitment problems with respect to officers, & quarrels about trivia, ie, hair style, etc. 2 Tables. AA.

The Politics and Government of Switzerland is one of very few English language studies of contemporary Swiss politics. Drawing on recent research in Switzerland, and the author's own observations, it offers wide coverage of Swiss political forces, processes and policies. Church argues that Switzerland is actually a vibrant and pluralist polity, in which politics are increasingly competitive. However, it still retains some distinctive characteristics like direct democracy, which mean that the Swiss people play a larger role than in other countries

Critical analysis of existing urban policy programmes and discourses in Zurich, Switzerland. Includes overview of political systems and governance structures, key shifts in national discourses, and approaches to policy over migration, citizenship, and diversity.

Carnival in Switzerland:. World Upside Down. 2000. 54 minutes, color. documentary film by Albert Gasser. For more information, contact University of California Extension, Center for Media and Independent Learning, 2000 Center Street, Suite 400, Berkeley, CA 94704.

Switzerland is regarded as a bastion of financial conservatism, yet the Swiss federal government presently faces annual budget deficits of the highest magnitude in recent history. This article provides an overview of measures instituted in Switzerland to control the growth of the public sector and public spending. Recent efforts to raise new tax revenues are also discussed. To place the fiscal dilemma in perspective, an introduction to the structure of Swiss national government and the budgetary process is included. In analysis of Swiss budgetary politics, particular emphasis is given to the influence of the public referendum process on the political dynamics of resource decision making. The authors also analyze the area of the Swiss budget that is growing most rapidly—mandated entitlements—especially payments for unemployment compensation. A prolonged economic recession in Europe has created high unemployment and, consequently, high demand for unemployment compensation and other social "safety net" programs and spending. The most prominent feature of the Swiss political system is that it is headed by a stable coalition government in which leadership does not alternate between different political parties. This system confronts social and policy problems in a slow and deliberate manner due to the necessity for consultation and compromise in a multi‐party coalitional government. The advantage of this system is stability and prudence, the disadvantage is perhaps short‐term unresponsiveness to budgetary and policy dilemmas of the type now faced in Switzerland. Parallels are drawn between the Swiss budgetary problem and that faced by the U.S. executive and Congress.

Internet voting (i-voting) is often discussed as a potential remedy against declining turnout rates. This paper presents new evidence on the causal effect of i-voting on turnout, drawing on trials conducted in two Swiss cantons: Geneva and Zurich. Both Geneva and Zurich constitute hard cases for i-voting, given that i-voting was introduced in the presence of postal voting. However, this setting allows us to test some of the more optimistic claims regarding i-voting's ability to increase turnout. Empirically, we exploit the advantageous circumstance that federal legislation created a situation coming close to a natural experiment, with some of Geneva's and Zurich's municipalities participating in i-voting trials and others not. Using difference-in-differences estimation, we find that i-voting did not increase turnout in the cantons of Geneva and Zurich.

The evolution of the key principle of Swiss foreign policy – "armed neutrality" – is analyzed in the context of radical changes in the world community associated with the emergence of new threats and challenges. The confrontation between Russia and the United States, which entered an acute phase in Ukraine, led to the transformation of the positions of traditional European neutrals – Finland and Sweden. Switzerland did not stand aside. Having found itself under double pressure – external and internal – the Swiss leadership supported all the packages of anti-Russian sanctions adopted by the European Union, which led to a forced adjustment of the policy of neutrality. In order to maintain a balance between expressing solidarity with the position of the Western countries and maintaining neutrality, the strategy of "cooperative neutrality" was adopted in Bern. It proposes, taking into account new challenges, to move from "passive" to "active" neutrality, namely, to expand cooperation, including military, "with like-minded states on the basis of common values." But at the same time, maintain a dialogue with other countries in order, on the one hand, to show solidarity with partners, and on the other, to continue interaction and act as mediators in resolving conflicts. However, Russia believes that having joined the anti-Russian sanctions, Switzerland has already lost its neutrality status, which means it cannot mediate in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, including providing its platform for negotiations between the parties. Therefore in August 2022, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused Berne's offer to represent Ukraine's diplomatic interests in Russia.

The global context for regional policy is changing fast. Regional policy is challenged by the globalisation and regionalisation of political and economic structures, the implementation of sustainable development, and the reform of political and administrative structures. Most European countries have started to reformulate their regional policy. This wave of change has touched Switzerland as well. Although disparities between the regions are not of the same magnitude as in other countries, regional development problems can be found all over Switzerland. Regional policy, however, has not been adapted to tackle the present challenges. Evaluations in Switzerland and experiences in other countries reveal a need for a more integrated regional policy approach. With reference to the Swiss context, the authors outline the form an integrated policy approach could take. The approach includes the political system and sectoral policies with regional impact and comprises six elements: public and private actors; institutional structures and processes; top-down and bottom-up approaches; exogenous and endogenous strategies; economic, social, and environmental dimensions; and policies at regional, national, and European levels. This integrated perspective is complemented with considerations of how this approach in practice could look like on the national and the regional level. Special attention is given to the role of regional actors and institutions in the development process.

This book analyzes the link between economic and political inequalities and investigates the mechanisms that lead to economically rooted inequalities in the political representation of citizens' policy preferences. Focusing on the case of Switzerland and evaluating data from the post-electoral survey, Selects 2007, the author demonstrates that the policy preferences of members of the Federal Assembly best reflect those of rich citizens. This pattern is explained by differential levels of political participation and knowledge across income groups, party finance, the fact that representatives tend to come from higher economic strata, and the failure of the party-system structure to reflect the complexity of policy preferences among citizens

Essay in a journal symposium on Switzerland. Adapted from the source document.

Cover -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Notes on Contributors -- Introduction: The End of Innocence: Debating Colonialism in Switzerland -- Part I: Colonialism and Science -- 1 On the Tropical Origins of the Alps: Science and the Colonial Imagination of Switzerland, 1700-1900 -- 2 Race in the Making: Colonial Encounters, Body Measurements and the Global Dimensions of Swiss Racial Science, 1900-1950 -- 3 The Other's Colony: Switzerland and the Discovery of Côte d'Ivoire -- Part II: (Post)colonial Economies