Government System of Switzerland

Background:
Switzerland has a democratic
constitution that as been in affect since
1848 after a short civil war. The
constitution was revised in 1874 and has
been edited here and there ever since.
The federal constitution has it divided
into 26 cantons in one federal state.

Executive branch:
The executive branch is there to
execute and implement the laws
enacted by the legislature. The
highest executive authority is the
Federal Council with its
departments and federal offices the
subordinate authorities.

Federal Council and

President of the
Swiss Confederation:
The executive of the Swiss
government consists of seven
members of the Federal Council
who are elected by the United
Federal Assembly for a four-year
term in office. Each member has the
same status, rights and obligations
in their position. However, they
each are assigned the head of a
seven-department position in the
Federal Administration. The actual
presidency is only a one-year term
as the Primus inter pares, the first
among equals. He or she holds
Federal Council meetings and has
special representation duties. The

The Cantons and

Communes:
elecEach of the 26 cantons has equal
status and rights under the Federal
Constitution. Each canton has its own
constitution, parliament, government
and courts with so much power
under their control. The parliaments
of the cantons consist of 50 to 180
members that are elected by the
people and have a good spectrum of
representation for the areas in the
cantons.
The communes are the smallest
political entity that consists of 2300
communes. A fifth of the communes
have its own parliament depending
on how big its cities or towns are.
The other four fifths use the
communal assembly where all
residents of these communes have a
say and make the decisions and elect
their executive bodies to help carry
them. Some of the responsibilities of

The current Federal

Council

Parliament & Supreme Court:

The Swiss parliament has 200 member elected by Swiss voters in their
canton under federal rules for a four-year term. The Council of States has 46
members with each canton having 2 except 6 cantons that has only one. The
Supreme Court is the highest court as the judiciary branch. It is based in
Lausanne that has two public law, two civil and one criminal division.