Swiss Democracy: Possible Solutions to Conflict in Multicultural Societies

1 Introduction

2 Building a Multicultural Society by Political Integration

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The origins of modern Switzerland

2.3 Turning poor odds into good ones, or: factors that made Swiss nation-building a success

2.3.1 Economy

2.3.2 Pressure from the outside

2.3.3 Democracy and social values

2.3.4 Combining democracy with federalism

2.4 Religious and ethnic minorities: from coexistence to pluralism

2.4.1 Political Catholicism: From segmentation to integration

2.4.2 Multilingualism: Understandings and misunderstandings

2.4.3 Jura - The exception to integration

2.5 The challenges of socio-economic inequality

2.5.1 A working class without a homeland

2.5.2 From class struggle to economic partnership

2.6 Proportional representation: The universal key to power-sharing

2.7 The limits of Swiss pluralism - New challenges for integration

2.8 Conclusion

3 Federalism

3.1 Institutions

3.1.1 The Swiss interpretation of federalism

3.1.2 The division of powers between the federation and the cantons

3.1.3 Non-centralisation - Not decentralisation

3.1.4 Relations between the federation and the cantons

3.2 Federal elements in the decision-making process

3.2.1 Bicameralism

3.2.2 The people's and the cantons' vote

3.2.3 Local governments: The corner stone of the Swiss 'bottom-up' state

3.2.4 Citizens' self-administration

3.3 Federalism at work

3.3.1 Cooperative federalism: How federal tasks are implemented by cantons and communes

3.3.2 From federal deadlock arise cantonal experiments: Energy policy

3.3.4 Swiss federalism: solidarity is more important than competition

3.3.5 Dealing with separatism: The arduous birth of a new canton

3.4 The limits of Swiss federalism

3.4.1 Limits of implementation: Why some foreigners can buy real estate in Switzerland but others cannot

3.4.2 The weakness of federal authorities, or how a canton can deny human rights to its citizens

3.5.1 Federalism vs. democracy: Why one citizen from Uri outweighs 35 citizens from Zurich, or to what extent is federalism compatible with democracy?

3.5.2 Urban regions - The forgotten dimension of Swiss federalism

3.5.4 The internal challenge, or: Why do the Swiss want to preserve federalism

References

4 Direct Democracy

4.1 Introduction: The vote to abolish the Swiss army

4.2 Insti

Author: Wolf Linder, Sean Mueller
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Published: 02/07/2022
Pages: 295
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.84lbs
Size: 8.27h x 5.83w x 0.67d
ISBN: 9783030632687

This title is not returnable