Introduction: Why Switzerland?*
This article explores lessons from the contemporary
Swiss experience of nation-building as well as their
applicability to confl ict-affected multi-national
societies searching for long-term visions of inter-
communal coexistence. The question under study
is how to defi ne essential qualities of a collective
historical experience capable of fostering a mutually
acceptable and sustainable way of coexistence
among historically divided national communities.
This inquiry highlights a long-term view of history
and future prospects because nation-building is
necessarily a trans-generational process that far
exceeds the conventional political time frames of
months to years, with which government-led peace
processes are usually concerned.
From a political and legal standpoint, the Swiss
experience of nation-building has evolved around
the long-term process of developing a functional
federal state. As Yash Ghai (1998), a leading expert
on constitution building, notes, federalism is a form of
governance in which “power is devolved equally to all
regions and each region has an identical relationship to
the central government” (p.156). Such an egalitarian
arrangement of governance, however, has rarely
been actualized in contemporary international
relations, especially among ethno-linguistically and
culturally diverse communities that struggle to fi nd
a mutually acceptable way of living together within
the same territorial boundaries. Notable exceptions
to this challenge of coexistence include Switzerland,
Belgium, and Malaysia – three countries whose
systems of multi-national federalism have more or
less successfully prevented intercommunal differences
from degenerating into large-scale violence, while
20
* An opportunity granted to the author to deliver a public lecture on reconciliation and engage in lively discussions with participants in Waseda University’s Organization for Regional and Inter-regional Studies (ORIS) conference on November 26, 2015 contributed to the development of the Swiss model presented in this article. A special note of appreciation is due to ORIS and the conference participants.
Lessons from the Swiss Experience of Nation-Building:
Implications for Multi-National Societies in Confl ict
Tatsushi Arai, PhD
Special Article
building sustainable practices of coexistence across
generations. (See Watts (2008) for useful descriptions
of these and other examples of federalism.) Swiss
federalism in particular, for its longevity and maturity,
stands out among these notable exceptions and justifi es
being the focus of special inquiry.
Historically, Switzerland’s adaptation of federalism
in the mid-nineteenth century was a national response
to its civil war in November 1847. The war was fought
between progressive protestant cantons constituting a
majority in the Swiss confederation, on the one hand,
and the alliance of seven conservative catholic cantons
feeling increasingly marginalized, on the other. The
end of the six centuries of a loose confederal pact
among its sovereign cantons as well as their transition
to build a more unifi ed federal state therefore represent
these cantons’ and their constituent communities’
collective endeavor in confl ict management and
national reconciliation. Viewed from this historical
perspective, the last one and a half centuries of Swiss
national experience illustrate a grand experiment in
the transformation of the Swiss communities’ long-
standing confl ict. (For a brief overview of basic facts
about today’s Switzerland, see the appendix.)
While confl ict-affected societies in search of new
models of inter-communal coexistence and functional
governance frequently make a cursory reference to
the Swiss model, this author’s extensive experience
as a peacebuilding trainer and mediator suggests that
confl ict parties and stakeholders who would benefi t
greatly from an in-depth understanding of the Swiss
experience rarely have such an understanding. This
problem is attributed in part to the dearth of clear,
concise, and accessible case studies of the Swiss
experience that unfamiliar confl ict parties and
intermediaries can learn from and easily grasp. This
article seeks to meet this challenge and address the
collective need of policy-oriented practitioners,
civil society leaders, researchers, students, and other
stakeholders interested in nation-building, transitional
governance, and inter-communal coexistence. It will
do so by articulating the defi ning characteristics of
Swiss nation-building, federalism, and intercommunal
coexistence based on the fi ndings from a literature
review and fi eld research in Switzerland. The
concluding part of the article will draw implications
for deeply divided multi-national countries striving to
develop a long-term vision of coexistence.
Findings: Defi ning Characteristics of the Swiss Model
A series of in-depth interviews were conducted in
August 2012 with cantonal government offi cials, civil
society leaders, and other informed stakeholders in
two multi-national cantons. One of them is Fribourg,
a canton comprised of a Francophone majority and
a German-speaking minority, which represents
a reversal of the country’s general demographic
balance. The other canton is Graubuden, in which
a German-speaking majority lives side by side
with Italian and Romansh-speaking minorities
across the sparsely populated southeastern region
bordering Italy, Liechtenstein, and Austria. These
two cantons were selected because of their highly
unique demographic compositions that illustrate
distinct and enduring characteristics of majority-
minority relations in Switzerland. These interviews,
supplemented by relevant literature, suggest twelve
salient characteristics of the Swiss model. This article
helped articulate these characteristics in three general
categories, namely, the historical evolution of Swiss
federalism, Swiss foreign and defense policies, and
the basic structures and practices of Swiss federalism.
The historical evolution of Swiss federalism1. Joint independence: Throughout modern
European history, the alliance of autonomous
Swiss nations sought to attain “joint independence”
21
Contact: [email protected]
Associate Professor of Peacebuilding and Confl ict Transformation, School for International Training (SIT) Graduate Institute, USA
Fellow, Center for Peacemaking Practice, School for Confl ict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, USA
Lessons from the Swiss Experience of Nation-Building: Implications for Multi-National Societies in Conflict — Tatsushi Arai
(Galtung 2004: 67) from hegemonic conquests
and interferences from Germany, Austria,
France, Italy, and other external powers. Today,
Swiss national consciousness is so deep-rooted
that the diverse linguistic communities within
Switzerland, regardless of their differences,
identify with their own united motherland,
not with the neighboring countries with which
the Swiss have historical and linguistic ties
(Interviews in Fribourg on August 19, 2012).
2. Multi-national statehood: Switzerland is a
multi-national country whose constitution
ensures the equality among its four national-
linguistic constituent groups. In terms of the
mother languages spoken, 65 percent of Swiss
citizens speak German, 23 percent French,
8 percent Italian, and 0.5 percent Romansh
with significant overlaps between them. (See
the map below.) Nine percent of the people
in Switzerland speak other languages as their
native tongues, for about 20 percent of Swiss
residents are foreign nationals. The protection
of minority rights is not only constitutionally
ensured but also generally implemented through
a widespread social and cultural practice of
majority reaching out to minority, to realize
coexistence among all communities. Diverse
examples reported by the interviewees include
the Francophone majority making special
accommodations for the German-speaking
minority in Fribourg and the German-speaking
majority doing the same to the Italian and
Romansh-speaking minorities in Graubunden,
in order to ensure these minorities’ access to
education, employment, social welfare, and
other basic needs.
22
Map of Switzerland
23
3. From confederal to federal governance: The
Swiss confederation was established in the
thirteenth century as a loosely-coordinated
security alliance among small sovereign states.
The confederation had lasted till 1848, when
Switzerland adopted a new constitution to
establish a federation as a collective response
to the devastating experience of the civil war in
1847. The new constitution enabled the unified
Swiss nation to establish joint foreign, security
and fiscal policies at the federal level, while
safeguarding the autonomy of the respective
cantons (local units of governance) to decide
on other matters. The revised constitution of
1874 expanded the right of the cantons and
their citizens to initiate referendums at the
federal level, while it had essentially kept
the content of the 1848 constitution intact. In
1999, after a century and a half of continuous
evolution and development, the constitution
was revised again to update its language
and enhance its readability and accessibility
based on nationwide consensus-building, two
years of parliamentary debate, and finally, a
successful referendum (Haller 2009: 7-14).
Foreign and defense policies4. Permanent neutrality: Switzerland’s permanent
neutrality was established in the Congress
of Vienna in 1815, in which major European
powers sought to overcome the devastating
effects of the French Revolutionary Wars and
the Napoleonic Wars while striving to establish
a sustainable balance of power among them
for regional stability. Consistent with this
historical legacy of neutrality, today Switzerland
continuously refrains from participating in such
military alliances as the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO). However, Switzerland
plays an active role in organizations for
confidence-building such as the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
In addition, Switzerland is an active member
of the Council of Europe (membership since
1963), the European Convention on Human
Rights (since 1974), and the United Nations
(since 2002). Importantly, Swiss voters have
so far rejected their accession to the European
Union to maintain Switzerland’s economic
and political independence, while generally
supporting a well-defined scope of specialized
agreements with the EU and with its member
states to ensure freedom of movement across
national borders. Consequently, Switzerland
has largely succeeded in becoming an
integral part of the European economy: as of
2015, for example, there are 750,000 people
and 35,000 vehicles coming in and out of
Switzerland daily from its five neighboring
countries – Germany, France, Italy, Austria,
and Liechtenstein (Geiser 2015). It must be
noted, however, that the recent significant
increase in the number of immigrants and
European workers taking advantage of the
Swiss open borders is causing many Swiss
citizens a great deal of concern, as reflected
in the national referendum in February 2014,
through which the Swiss voters decided
to restrict European workers’ access to the
Swiss labor market. Moreover, the continuous
influx of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan,
Eretria, and elsewhere compelled the Swiss
to accept the EU’s relocation scheme adopted
in September 2015 (World Politics Review,
November 23, 2015). The Swiss acceptance
of the EU scheme highlights the need for the
Swiss nation to ask how to uphold its time-
honored neutrality principle and at the same
time, work within the EU-sponsored regional
rules to face Europe’s shared crisis.Adopted from the Pinterest website at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/334673816035296764/ (accessed January 25, 2016)
SWITZERLAND’S NATIONAL LANGUAGES
FRANCEGERMANY
LIECHTENSTEIN
AUSTRIA
ITALY
French-speaking
German-speaking
Romansch-speaking
Italian-speaking
Geneva
Lausanne
Bern
Basel Zurich
Swiss Alps
Region where anational languagepredominates
Lessons from the Swiss Experience of Nation-Building: Implications for Multi-National Societies in Conflict — Tatsushi Arai
5. Proactive engagement in mediation and
conciliation: Stimulated in part by Switzerland’s
accession to the United Nations in 2002,
today’s Swiss foreign policy seeks to practice
its enduring commitment to neutrality in
a proactive, adaptive, and context-specific
manner in order to meet the increasingly
globalized and diversified security needs. In
addition to playing an intermediary role in
securing a sustained, mutually acceptable
channel of communication between countries
that do not have diplomatic relations, including
between the United States and Cuba (till 2015),
the United States and Iran, and India and
Pakistan, Switzerland has played a catalytic
role in mediating protracted inter- and intra-
national conflicts. It engaged, for example,
the Nepali government, the Maoist resistance
movement, and various political parties from
2001 through 2005 through humanitarian
and development channels (Wennmann
2011: 91), brokered a ceasefire between the
Sudanese Government and the southern-based
Sudan People’s Liberation Army in 2002,
and supported Hamas-Fatah relationship-
building over many years in Palestine.
Moreover, by 2013, the Swiss government
assigned peacebuilding experts to nineteen
of its embassies to enhance Switzerland’s
capacity to support context-specific mediation
and conciliation activities in diverse conflict-
affected countries (Interview at the Swiss
embassy in Yangon, Myanmar on August 2,
2013).
6. Defensive defense: Switzerland upholds its
long-standing principle of defensive defense.
According to Fischer (1982), defensive
defense consists of building and exercising
invulnerability, an ability to resist harms
done by others without using offensive
power to harm others. The Swiss adaptation
of defensive defense in particular prioritizes
building the main portion of its military
machinery inside its territory away from its
borders, while equipping its military with more
short-range than long-range weaponry to avoid
provocation (Galtung 2004: 67-68). The basic
mission of the Swiss military is to serve as “an
instrument of permanent armed neutrality”
(Interview with Swiss military personnel in
Bern on August 20, 2012). To meet this goal,
military service is mandatory for all eligible
Swiss citizens (see the appendix for details),
who make up in effect for a broad-based, well-
regulated civilian militia. Today, the Swiss
military focuses increasingly on such emerging
security challenges as terrorism and natural
disasters, and departs from its traditional
emphasis on conventional measures aimed at
coping with cross-border military invasions
(Interviews with Swiss military personnel in
Bern on August 20, 2012).
7. A currency union with Liechtenstein:
Switzerland shares an open border, a
currency union (using Swiss francs), a
policy of neutrality, and direct democracy
with Lichtenstein, another non-EU member
with a small German-speaking population
of 35,000. While Lichtenstein has its own
independent parliament and government
under constitutional monarchy, it makes an
effective use of its two open borders, one with
Switzerland to the west and the other with
Austria to the east, to maintain highly integrated
relationships with its two larger neighbors.
Lichtenstein takes advantage of the shared
benefits of globalization with them through
transportation (through Austrian railways and
a Swiss-affiliated bus company), banking
services, commerce, tourism, and education,
24 25
among other areas of activities. Switzerland-
Lichtenstein relations thus demonstrate an
asymmetrical yet symbiotic system of shared
governance. This unique system rests on
the two countries’ shared commitment to a
currency union, an open border, and their
bounded history of neutrality, all of which
evolved outside the institutional framework
of the European Union while simultaneously
complementing it.
The basic structures and practices of Swiss federalism
8. Direct democracy: Swiss citizens practice
direct democracy with a frequent use of
referendums. Switzerland has a little over one
percent of the world’s population yet conducted
sixty percent of the world’s referenda in
the twentieth century (Galtung 2004: 68).
Collection of 100,000 signatures enables
Swiss citizens to call for a referendum. This
form of people’s direct participation, known as
initiative, is practiced at the federal, cantonal,
and communal levels.
9. A permanent multi-national coalition
government: The executive function of the
federation is performed by a cabinet, which
in effect serves as a permanent coalition
government. Seven cabinet members elected
by, and typically from, the legislature for a
four-year term constitute the Federal Council,
an executive branch. These executive members
represent both the cantons and political parties,
and by implication, the four linguistic groups
at least indirectly, in an attempt to realize
an equitable multi-partial representation of
diverse national constituencies. The seven
cabinet members of the Federal Council take
turns to serve presidency in one-year terms.
The president works more as a team leader of
the Federal Council than a dominant leader
capable of yielding overriding power over
other cabinet members.
10. Bicameral legislature: The Federal Assembly
is bicameral. It is modelled on the legislative
mechanism established by the American
constitution in 1787. The Federal Assembly
consists of the National Council, which is
comprised of representatives elected by
popular vote on the basis of proportional
representation (reflected in political parties’
electoral performances), and the Council of
States, which models on the US senate and
made up of two delegates each of the twenty
full cantons and one from each of the six half
cantons.
11. Cantons as small, diverse governing units:
Switzerland has twenty six cantons, six of them
half cantons that resulted from historical splits.
Cantons are highly autonomous self-governing
units, all relatively small in size, thus useful
as an institutional safeguard again a possible
domination by any of the four linguistic groups.
There are one Romansh-speaking canton
(Graubunden, in which Italian and German are
also spoken as official languages), one Italian-
speaking canton, four Francophone-majority
(including Fribourg, mentioned above) and
two partially Francophone cantons, and the
rest of them mostly German-speaking cantons,
but all very small.
12. Grassroots-based participatory democracy:
What constitutes the most essential
foundations of Switzerland’s multi-national
governance and coexistence is the grassroots-
based participatory democracy that each of
the 2,700 local communes, spread across the
twenty-six cantons, practices (Interviews with
local officials in Fribourg and Graubunden
on August 20-21, 2012). While local needs
Lessons from the Swiss Experience of Nation-Building: Implications for Multi-National Societies in Conflict — Tatsushi Arai
and traditions differ greatly, these communes
generally decide and act on locally-specific
ways of taxation and budgeting, primary and
pre-school education (including the choice
of language for instruction), the local police,
zoning and building regulations, garbage
disposal, and public utilities of different kinds.
Leadership experience in commune politics
trains aspiring citizens to prepare for greater
leadership roles in cantonal and federal politics
(Fleiner et al 2005).
This last point about local practices of democracy
deserves special attention because spontaneous day-
to-day interactions that facilitate Swiss multi-national
experiences cannot be explained fully in terms of
governance structures and institutional arrangements
alone. In relation to this point, what was especially
noteworthy during the field research was a lesson
learned from rural Romansh-speaking villages in
Graubunden, where multi-lingual local residents live
side by side with a significant number of foreigners
and immigrants from Portugal, the Balkans, and
other countries. When asked to reflect on the unique
attributes of their Romansh-speaking identity, several
of the local interviewees with Romansh heritage, who
work as shopkeepers, restaurant owners, bartenders,
tourist information center staff, and in other capacities,
almost unanimously responded, “I don’t know.” When
asked further to reflect on why local community
members of such diverse linguistic and national
backgrounds can coexist harmoniously – which they
confirmed to be the case – these same interviewees yet
again responded, “I don’t know,” after a much longer
pause. It was as if these questions were so out of place
that the interviewees could not even wrap their minds
around them. To the latter question, however, a staff
member of a tourist information center in the small
town of Samedan, who moved there some twenty
years ago from a German-speaking canton and raised
her child at the town’s Romansh-speaking elementary
school, finally responded after much thinking, “Maybe
if we don’t treat everyone in a friendly manner, we
cannot maintain a good life here” (Interview in
Samedan, Graubunden on August 18, 2012).
From an anthropological point of view, these
interviewees’ silence and their inability to respond
are as revealing and informative as their expressed
answers. To them, their daily experiences of living
together with other community members of diverse
national and linguistic backgrounds is so natural that
they do not even think consciously of the reasons
for their habitual way of living together. Nor do they
think of distinct attributes of their Romansh-speaking
identity or any other linguistic identity for that matter.
In other words, as far as these rural communities of
Graubunden are concerned, their culture of multi-
national coexistence appears to be so deep-rooted in
their collective mindset that it is hardly noticeable in
their self-awareness.
While these preliminary observations derived
from limited evidence are neither conclusive nor
generalizable to other areas of Switzerland that
previously experienced tensions over politicized
linguistic-national differences, these observations
are nevertheless evocative and useful as a starting
point of further inquiry into less visible aspects of
Swiss society’s multi-national experience. The future
inquiry of interest consists of asking such questions
as: how did Swiss communities of diverse national
and linguistic backgrounds come to internalize the
deeply habitual, routinized ways of managing their
differences and living together?; in what ways does
the evolution of diverse Swiss cultures that facilitate
intercommunal coexistence contribute to the long-
standing institutional practices of democratic,
participatory governance?; how do peace-promoting
cultures and structures reinforce one another to
generate a virtuous cycle of harmony and equity
while preventing a negative cycle of discrimination
and inequity?
26 27
Implications for Policy, Practice, and Future Inquiry
While the transferability of the Swiss model to other
social contexts must be examined cautiously, its
potential as a basis for exploratory inquiry, dialogue
and practitioner training for inter-communal conflict
resolution is significant. Illustrative examples of
multi-national countries that can benefit from a deep
understanding of the Swiss experience of nation-
building include Syria, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and
Nepal. Potentially useful questions for each of these
countries are as follows:
• Syria: Might it be possible to envision a multi-
national coalition government led jointly by
Alawite, Sunni, Christian, and other historical
minorities, with the head of the executive branch
selected on a rotating basis? Alternatively or
additionally, might it be possible to consider
a bicameral Syrian parliament that consists
of one chamber made up of representatives
of the existing (or carefully reorganized)
administrative districts, and the other chamber
comprised of representatives of diverse identity
groups organized into non-sectarian political
parties?
• Myanmar: Might this multi-national, multi-
religious society – comprised of the seven
administrative divisions of the Burman-
majority mainland and the additional seven
peripheral states inhabited mainly by diverse
ethnic minorities – be able to realize greater
development potential and social harmony
when the central government enables these
units to assume greater autonomy under
federalism? Might both the seven Burman-
majority divisions and the seven ethnic states
become more effective, complementary, and
sustainable bodies of governance when they
can practice greater economic, political, and
cultural-religious autonomy to serve each of
their constituent ethno-linguistic communities,
by learning lessons from Swiss cantons and
communes?
• Afghanistan: Might the multi-national
society of Afghanistan benefit from an Afghan
adaptation of the federal-cantonal-communal
(national-provincial-village) coordination
aimed at supporting greater autonomy at each
level, while placing a greater emphasis on
meeting the basic human needs of security,
welfare, and identity at the commune-village
level?
• Nepal: Might Nepal, a small landlocked
country surrounded by China and India, be
able to achieve greater security and regional
stability by adopting a policy of neutrality and
defensive defense, while proactively perusing
regional economic cooperation by modelling
on Swiss-EU relations? What lessons can
the increasingly internationalized Nepali
society learn from the relationships between
Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and Austria for the
future of Chinese-Nepali-Indian relations,
especially for Nepal’s effort to build greater
independence, security, and prosperity?
These exploratory questions would undoubtedly
be challenged by strong questions and objections
that stakeholders in each of the conflict-affected
societies under study must raise. Their questions and
objections are justified because each of the conflict-
affected societies is highly unique and ultimately
incomparable to other societies. Their similarities to
Switzerland in some aspects of comparability can
easily be overridden by fundamental differences in
other aspects. Moreover, the Swiss experience that
evolved at the heart of Western Europe may invite
resistance from conflict parties in non-European
contexts because such a comparison arguably implies
European supremacy. Experience suggests, however,
Lessons from the Swiss Experience of Nation-Building: Implications for Multi-National Societies in Conflict — Tatsushi Arai
28
that conflict parties’ resistance to imaginative,
analogical thinking is often attributed in part to
their refusal to compare and reduce their distinct,
unforgettable histories of suffering to somebody
else’s. In other words, part of their resistance may
come from their desire to have their historical
identities fully recognized and honored in their own
right. Under these circumstances, analogies always
fail, except when conflict parties themselves want to
seek inspirations from other societies undergoing war-
to-peace transitions. The Swiss model can therefore
serve as a guide to those who seek it.
References
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Swiss Concept of General Defense. Journal of Peace
Research 19 (3): 205-25.
Fleiner, Thomas, Alexander Music, and Nicole Topperwien.
2005. Swiss Constitutional Law. Hague: Kluwer.
Galtung, Johan. 2004. Transcend and Transform: An
Introduction to Conflict Work. Boulder, Colo.: Paradigm
Publishers.
Ghai, Yash. 1998. The Structure of the State: Federalism
and Autonomy. Chap. in Democracy and Deep-Rooted
Conflict: Options for Negotiators, edited by P. Harris
and B. Reilly. Stockholm: Institute for Democracy and
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http://www.idea.int/publications/democracy_and_deep_
rooted_conflict/upload/ddrc_full_en.pdf
Haller, Walter. 2009. The Swiss Constitution in a Comparative
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Geiser, Urs. 2015. Swiss Stop Short of Boosting Border
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stop-short-of-boosting-border-controls/41786816
(Accessed January 24, 2016).
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Heiniger. 2009. Peace Process and Federalism in Nepal:
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(NCCR) North-South.
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Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.
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Appendix: Basic Facts about Switzerland
Population (2015): 8.1 million
Area: 41,000 sq km (16,000 sq miles) – about one ninth of
Japan
Net migration rate (2015): 4.7 migrants/1,000 population
– For a comparative perspective, the US and Japanese
net immigration rates in 2015 were 3.9 and 0 migrants,
respectively, per 1,000.
Major urban areas (2015): Zurich 1.2 million, Bern (capital)
360,000
Mother languages spoken (2013): German 64%, French 23%,
Italian 8%, Romansch 0.5% – all official languages
Religion (2013): Catholic 38%, Protestant 27%, Other
Christian 6%, Muslim 5%, None 21%
Administrative units: Federation comprised of 26 cantons (6
of which are half cantons), subdivided into approximately
2,700 communes
GDP (purchasing power parity, 2014): $473 billion
GDP per capita (2014): $58,000
Labor force by occupation (2010): agriculture 3.4%, industry
23.4%, services 73.2%
Unemployment rate (2014): 3.2%
Population below poverty line (2011): 7.6%
System of governance: Legislation by the bicameral
Federal Assembly comprised of the Council of States (2
representatives from each canton and 1 representative
from each half-canton elected for a four-year term) and
29
the National Council (representatives elected by popular
vote on the basis of proportional representation, with seats
distributed among political parties); the Federal Council,
the cabinet, comprise of 7 members elected from the
Federal Assembly for a four-year term; Federal Council
members rotate in one-year terms to become federal
president.
Major political parties: Christian Democratic Party (CVP),
Free Democratic Party (FDP. The Liberals), Social
Democratic Party (SPS)
Military service (as of 2012): 19-26 years of age for male
compulsory military service. Compulsory service consists
of 260 days in the armed forces. Conscripts receive 18
weeks of mandatory training, followed by seven 3-week
intermittent recalls for training during the next 10 years.
Military expenditure (2014): 0.64% of GDP
Source: CIA World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/
publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sz.html
Lessons from the Swiss Experience of Nation-Building: Implications for Multi-National Societies in Conflict — Tatsushi Arai