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Swiss Federal Council

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Politics and government

   Swiss Federal Council logo

   The Swiss Federal Council (German: Schweizerischer Bundesrat, French:
   Conseil fédéral suisse, Italian: Consiglio federale svizzero, Romansh:
   Cussegl federal svizzer) is the seven-member executive council which
   constitutes the government as well as the head of state of Switzerland.

   Each of the seven Federal Councillors heads a department of the Swiss
   federal government. Following the elections of 10 December 2003, the
   members of the Federal Council are, in order of seniority:
     * Moritz Leuenberger, Federal Department of Environment, Transport,
       Energy and Communications, President of the Swiss Confederation in
       2006.
     * Pascal Couchepin, Federal Department of Home Affairs
     * Samuel Schmid, Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and
       Sports
     * Micheline Calmy-Rey, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, vice
       president of the Federal Council in 2006
     * Christoph Blocher, Federal Department of Justice and Police
     * Hans-Rudolf Merz, Federal Department of Finance
     * Doris Leuthard, Federal Department of Economic Affairs

Origins and history of the Federal Council

Origins of the institution

   The Federal Council was instituted by the 1848 Federal Constitution as
   the "supreme executive and directorial authority of the Confederation".

   When the Constitution was written, constitutional democracy was still
   in its infancy, and the founding fathers of Switzerland had little in
   the way of examples. While they drew heavily on the U.S. Constitution
   for the organisation of the federal state as a whole, they opted for
   the collegial rather than the presidential system for the executive
   branch of government. This accommodated the long tradition of the rule
   of collective bodies in Switzerland. Under the Ancien Régime, the
   cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy had been governed by councils of
   pre-eminent citizens since time immemorial, and the later Helvetic
   Republic (with its equivalent Directorate) as well as the cantons that
   had given themselves liberal constitutions since the 1830s had also
   made good experiences with that mode of governance.

   While it has served Switzerland well, the collegial system of
   government (like other idiosyncrasies of Swiss democracy, such as
   direct democracy) has not found widespread adoption in modern
   democracies. Today, only two other states have collective rather than
   unitary heads of state and government.

Changes in composition

   The 1848 constitutional provision providing for the Federal Council —
   and indeed the institution of the Council itself — has remained
   unchanged to this day, even though Swiss society has changed profoundly
   since. The Federal Council thus represents one of the longest
   traditions of continuous democratic government in the world, comparable
   to that of the offices of the U.S. President or the British Prime
   Minister. Nonetheless, some significant developments deserve to be
   mentioned here.

Party representation

   The 1848 Constitution was one of the few successes of the democratic
   revolutions of 1848. In Switzerland, the democratic movement was led —
   and the new federal state decisively shaped — by the Radicals
   (presently the Free Democratic Party, FDP). After winning the
   Sonderbundskrieg, the Swiss civil war, against the Catholic cantons,
   the Radicals at first used their majority in the Federal Assembly to
   fill all the seats on the Federal Council. This made their former war
   opponents, the Catholic-Conservatives (presently the Christian
   Democratic People's Party, CVP), the opposition party. Only after Emil
   Welti's resignation in 1891 after a failed referendum on railway
   nationalisation, the Radicals decided to co-opt the Conservatives by
   supporting the election of Josef Zemp.

   The process of involving all major political movements of Switzerland
   into the responsibility of government continued during the first half
   of the 20th century. It was hastened by the FDP's and CVP's gradually
   diminishing voter share, complemented by the rise of new parties of
   lesser power at the ends of the political spectrum. These were the
   Social Democratic Party (SP) on the Left and the Party of Farmers,
   Traders and Independents (BGB; presently the People's Party, SVP) on
   the Right. In due course, the CVP received its second seat in 1919 with
   Jean-Marie Musy, while the BGB joined the Council in 1929 with Rudolf
   Minger. In 1943, during World War II, the Social Democrats were also
   temporarily included with Ernst Nobs.

   The 1954 elections, following the resignation of four Councillors,
   finally established the Zauberformel, the "magical formula" that
   determined the Council's composition during the rest of the 20th
   century and established the present nature of the Council as a
   permanent, voluntary grand coalition. In approximate relation to the
   parties' respective strength in the Federal Assembly, the seats were
   distributed as follows:
     * Free Democratic Party: 2 members,
     * Christian Democratic People's Party: 2 members,
     * Social Democratic Party: 2 members, and
     * Swiss People's Party: 1 member.

   During that time, the FDP and CVP very slowly but steadily kept losing
   voter share to the SVP and SP, respectively, who overtook the older
   parties in popularity during the 1990s. The governmental balance was
   finally upset after the 2003 elections, when the now-powerful SVP
   demanded a CVP Council seat for their leader Christoph Blocher and
   threatened to otherwise leave the government. The Assembly (including
   many CVP representatives) acceded to that demand and ousted CVP
   Councillor Ruth Metzler-Arnold. It remains to be seen whether this
   shift in composition endures, or whether the Council's composition will
   remain contested and changeable.

Women on the council

   Women, who gained suffrage on the federal level as late as 1971, have
   historically not been well represented on the Council. Only five out of
   109 Councillors (or out of 27 Councillors elected since 1971) have been
   women.

   Also, many women have not had much luck with their political careers at
   the Federal Council level:
     * In 1983, the non-election of the first official female candidate,
       Lilian Uchtenhagen, and again in 1993 the non-election of
       Christiane Brunner (both SP), caused a stir. The Social Democrats
       each time considered withdrawing from the Council altogether.
     * The first woman Councillor, Elisabeth Kopp (FDP), elected 1984, had
       to resign over a scandal in 1989.
     * The third woman Councillor, young Ruth Metzler-Arnold (CVP), was
       not reelected after one term of office in 2003 (see above).

   Only the second and fourth woman Councillors, former Councillor Ruth
   Dreifuss and present Councillor Micheline Calmy-Rey (both SP), have (so
   far) had normal careers. The fifth woman Councillor, Doris Leuthard
   (CVP), took up her office on August 1, 2006.

   Dreifuss was President of the Confederation in 1999. Calmy-Rey is
   currently Vice-President, and if tradition holds she will be President
   in 2007.

Regional balancing acts

   Up until 1999, the Constitution mandated that no canton could hold more
   than one seat on the Federal Council. Until 1987, the place of origin
   was used to determine which canton a Federal Councilor was from. After
   1987, the place of residence (or, for councilors who were previously
   members of the Federal Assembly or of a Canton's legislative or
   executive body, the canton in which they got elected) became the
   determinant factor. Nothing prevented candidates to move to politically
   expedient Cantons, though, and the rule was abandoned in 1999. Since
   then, the Constitution mandates an equitable distribution of seats
   among the Cantons and language regions of the country, without setting
   concrete quotas.

   Historically, at least two Council seats have always been held by
   French- or Italian-speaking Swiss, and no Canton has in fact ever had
   more than one of its citizens on the Federal Council. Since December
   2003, however, two of the members of the Federal Council, Moritz
   Leuenberger and Christoph Blocher, reside in the Canton of Zürich.

Operation of the Federal Council

Presidency

   Each year, one of the seven Councillors is elected by the Federal
   Assembly as President of the Confederation. The Federal Assembly also
   elects a Vice President. By convention, the positions of President and
   Vice President rotate annually, each Councillor thus becoming Vice
   President and then President every seven years while in office.

   According to the Swiss order of precedence, the President of the
   Confederation is the highest-ranking Swiss official. He or she presides
   over Council meetings and carries out certain representative functions
   that, in other countries, are the business of the Head of State. In
   urgent situations where a Council decision cannot be made in time, her
   or she is empowered to act on behalf of the whole Council. Apart from
   that, though, he or she is a primus inter pares, having no power above
   and beyond the other six Councillors.

   The President is not the Swiss head of state (this function is carried
   out by the Council in corpore, that is, in its entirety). However, it
   has recently become usual that the President acts and is recognized as
   head of state while conducting official visits abroad, as the Council
   (also by convention) doesn't leave the country in corpore. More often,
   though, official visits abroad are carried out by the head of the
   Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Visiting heads of state are
   received by the Federal Council in corpore.

Council meetings

   The Federal Council operates mainly through weekly meetings, which are
   held each Wednesday at the Bundeshaus in Bern, the seat of the Swiss
   federal government.

   Apart from the seven Councillors, the following officials also attend
   the meetings:
     * Federal Chancellor Annemarie Huber-Hotz. As government chief of
       staff, she participates in the discussion but has no vote in the
       Council's decisions. Nonetheless, her influential position is often
       referred to as that of a "eighth Federal Councillor".
     * the two Vice-Chancellors: Corina Casanova and Oswald Sigg. Sigg is
       the spokesman of the Federal Council and conducts the weekly press
       briefing after the meeting.

   After the meetings, the Councillors always take lunch together. The
   Council also meets regularly in conclave to discuss important topics at
   length, and annually conducts what is colloquially referred to as its
   "school excursion", a day trip to some attractions in the President's
   home canton. In that and other respects, the Council operates not
   unlike a board of directors of a major corporation.

Decisions and responsibilities

   Each Federal Councillor heads a government department, much like the
   ministers in the governments of other countries. Colloquially and by
   the press, they are often referred to as ministers, e.g. the head of
   the DDPS as "minister of defence", even though no such post officially
   exists. However, as Council members, they are not only responsible for
   their own department, but also for the business of their colleagues'
   departments as well, and for the conduct of the government and the
   federal administration as a whole.

   Decisions to be taken by the Council are always prepared by the
   responsible department. For example, a change in the salaries of
   federal employees would be proposed to the council by the head of the
   Federal Department of Finance, to whose department the Federal Office
   of Personnel belongs. Before a vote is taken at a Council meeting,
   though, all proposals are circulated in writing to the heads of
   departments, who commission the senior career officials of their
   department - the heads of the Federal Offices - to prepare a written
   response to offer criticism and suggestions. This is called the
   co-report procedure (Mitberichtsverfahren/procédure de co-rapport),
   designed to build a wide consensus ahead of a Council meeting.

   To prepare for important decisions, an additional public consultation
   is sometimes conducted, to which the Cantons, the political parties and
   major interest groups are invited, and in which all members of the
   public can participate. If a change in a federal statute is to be
   proposed to the Federal Assembly, this step is mandated by law. In such
   cases, the consultation procedure also serves to identify political
   concerns that could later be the focus of a popular referendum to stop
   passage of the bill at issue.

   The decisions themselves are formally taken by voice vote by a majority
   of the Councillors present at a meeting. However, the great majority of
   decisions are arrived at by consensus; even though lately there is said
   to be a trend towards more contentious discussions and close votes.

Secrecy

   The meetings of the Federal Council and the result of the votes taken
   are not open to the public, and the records remain sealed for 50 years.
   This has lately been the subject of some criticism. In particular, the
   parties at the ends of the political spectrum argue that this secrecy
   is contrary to the principle of transparency. However, the Council has
   always maintained that secrecy is necessary to arrive at consensus and
   to preserve the collegiality and political independence of the
   individual Councillors.

   Despite the secrecy rule, details of the votes and the arguments in
   Council are sometimes leaked to the press, resulting in (generally
   fruitless) investigations and criminal prosecutions of the leaking
   staff member.

Constitutional conventions

   Due to the Federal Council's unique nature as a voluntary grand
   coalition of political opponents, its operation is subject to numerous
   constitutional conventions. Most notable is the principle of
   collegiality, that is, the Councillors are supposed not to publicly
   criticise one another, even though they are often political opponents.
   In effect, they are expected to publicly support all decisions of the
   Council, even against their own personal opinion or that of their
   political party. In the eye of many observers, this convention has
   become rather strained after the 2003 elections (see below).

Election and composition

Election mode

   The members of the Federal Council are elected for a term of four years
   by both chambers of the federal parliament sitting together as the
   Federal Assembly. Each Councillor is elected individually by secret
   ballot by an absolute majority of votes. Every adult Swiss citizen is
   eligible, but in practice, only Members of Parliament or more rarely,
   members of Cantonal governments are nominated by the political parties
   and receive a substantial amount of votes. The voting is conducted in
   several rounds: in the first two rounds, anyone can enter their name;
   but in subsequent rounds, the person receiving the least votes is
   removed from the race until one candidate gains an absolute majority.

   With Council seats allocated to parties by unwritten agreement (see
   above), Federal Council elections generally are unexciting, pleasant
   affairs. Usually, the party which has a seat to fill presents two
   candidates with mainstream viewpoints to the United Federal Assembly,
   who then chooses one. This was not so, however, during the 2003
   election, which was the most controversial in recent memory (see also
   above).

   Once elected, Councillors remain members of their political parties,
   but hold no leading office with them. In fact, they usually maintain a
   certain political distance to the party leadership, because under the
   rules of collegiality, they will often have to publicly promote a
   Council decision which does not match the political conviction of their
   party (or of themselves).

Present political composition

   Currently ( as of 2006), the Council is considered to have a
   conservative and liberal (in the classical sense) majority, composed of
   Pascal Couchepin / Hans-Rudolf Merz (FDP) and Christoph Blocher /
   Samuel Schmid (SVP). On the Left, there are SP members Moritz
   Leuenberger and Micheline Calmy-Rey. The exact alignment of the newest
   Councillor, Doris Leuthard from the centrist CVP, is yet to become
   clear, but her predecessor Joseph Deiss was said to vote sometimes with
   one wing of the council and sometimes with the other. It is sometimes
   reported that liberal Councillor Pascal Couchepin often casts the
   decisive vote on divisive issues, although due to the Council's rule of
   secrecy, all such information must be taken with caution.

Resignation

   Once elected for a four-year-term, Federal Councillors can neither be
   voted out of office by a motion of no confidence nor can they be
   impeached. Reelection is possible for an indefinite number of terms,
   and it has historically been extremely rare for Parliament not to
   reelect a sitting Councillor. This has only happened thrice - to Ulrich
   Ochsenbein in 1854, to Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel in 1872 and to Ruth
   Metzler-Arnold in 2003. In practice, therefore, Councillors serve until
   they decide to resign and retire to private life, usually after three
   to five terms of office.

Status of Federal Councillors

Councillors' lives

   Unlike most senior members of government in other countries, the
   Federal Councillors are not entitled to an official residence. Mostly,
   they have chosen to rent apartments or hotel suites in Bern (at their
   own expense); the only contemporary exception being Moritz Leuenberger,
   who daily commutes by train from Zürich to Bern. However, they are
   entitled to use the Federal Council's country estate, Lohn, for
   holidays; this estate is also used to host official guests of the Swiss
   Confederation.

   While Councillors can draw on an Army security detail if they need
   personal protection (in particular during official events), it is more
   usual to encounter them without any escort at all in the streets,
   restaurants and tramways of Bern. Councillors are also entitled to a
   personal bailiff (Weibel) who accompanies them, in a colourful uniform,
   to official events. This tradition is directly traceable — through the
   republican governments of the ancient Swiss cantons — back to the
   lictors of the ancient Roman Republic.

   The spouses of Councillors do not play an official part in the business
   of government, apart from accompanying the Councillors to official
   receptions.

Councillors' salary

   Federal Councillors draw a yearly remuneration of CHF 400,000 (circa
   EUR 256,000 / USD 305,000) . After completing a full term of office,
   they are entitled to a perennial yearly pension of half that amount
   after leaving office.

   While Councillors are forbidden by law to hold any other post during
   their term of office, it is not unusual for them to accept lucrative
   business engagements after leaving office, e.g. in the board of
   directors of major Swiss corporations.

Immunity

   Federal Councillors, like Members of Parliament, enjoy absolute legal
   immunity for all statements made in their official capacity.

   For crimes and misdemeanors not relating to their official capacity,
   they can be criminally prosecuted only with the permission of the
   Federal Council as a whole while in office. The prosecutor can appeal a
   refusal to grant permission to the Federal Assembly.

   Prosecution for crimes and misdemeanors that do relate to the
   Councillors' official capacity requires the assent of the Federal
   Assembly. In such cases, Parliament can also suspend the Councillor in
   office (but not actually remove her or him).

   According to statements to the media by a Federal Chancellory official,
   in none of the few cases of accusations against a Federal Councillor
   has the permission to prosecute ever been granted. Such cases usually
   involved statements considered offensive by members of the public.
   However, one unnamed Councillor involved in a traffic accident
   immediately prior to his date of resignation was reported to have
   voluntarily waived his immunity, and Councillor Elisabeth Kopp decided
   to resign upon facing an inquiry over allegations of secrecy
   violations.

Assessment and calls for change

   Historically, the collegial government of Switzerland has been assessed
   both internationally and nationally as exceptionally competent and
   stable. The Federal Council as a whole (although not individual
   members) has consistently maintained public approval and confidence
   rates in excess of sixty percent, possibly also because under the Swiss
   system of direct democracy, voters can vent their displeasure with
   government decisions when deciding individual issues at the ballot box.

   However, lately there has been a growing contention that the Federal
   Council is often too slow to respond to the needs of the moment, too
   resistant to change and too weak to lead the powerful federal
   bureaucracy. Various changes have been proposed to address these
   issues, including expanding the powers of the presidency, expanding the
   Federal Council itself or adding a second layer of ministers between
   the Council and the departments. None of these proposals has yet borne
   fruit, however.

   After the 2003 elections, many observers have also noted that many
   present councillors tend to behave as self-centered alpha males (or
   alpha female, in the case of Councillor Calmy-Rey) instead of as team
   players as has historically been the case. They point to the visible
   mutual animosity and breaches of collegiality notably between Christoph
   Blocher and Pascal Couchepin / Moritz Leuenberger, respectively.
   Others, however, contend that such confrontations have always occurred,
   but now tend to be hyped by media eager to report on juicy political
   conflicts.

   If Switzerland were ever to join the European Union (which as of 2006
   does not appear likely to happen in the next five to ten years), it
   would certainly have to reform its system of governance and direct
   democracy in order to allow its members of the government to make
   binding decisions at the European Council level.

List of "firsts" in the Federal Council

     * 1848: The first seven members elected: Ochsenbein, Furrer,
       Munzinger, Druey, Frey-Herosé, Naeff and Franscini.
     * 1854: First (of only three so far) sitting Federal Councillors not
       to be reelected, Ulrich Ochsenbein.
     * 1891: First Councillor of the Christian Democratic People's Party
       of Switzerland, Josef Zemp.
     * 1893: First (and only) son of a former member being elected to the
       council, Eugène Ruffy, son of Victor Ruffy.
     * 1911: First (and only) octogenarian in office, Adolf Deucher.
     * 1917: First (and only) Councillor of the Liberal Party elected,
       Gustave Ador.
     * 1930: First Councillor of the Party of Farmers, Traders and
       Independents (BGB/PAI; now the Swiss People's Party), Rudolf
       Minger.
     * 1943: First Councillor of the Social Democratic Party, Ernst Nobs.
     * 1983: First female candidate for the Council from a government
       party, Lilian Uchtenhagen ( SP)
     * 1984: First woman Councillor, Elisabeth Kopp ( FDP).
     * 1993: First Councillor of Jewish origin, Ruth Dreifuss (SP).
     * 1993: First openly agnostic Councillor, Ruth Dreifuss (SP).
     * 1995: First Councillor living in a domestic partnership, Moritz
       Leuenberger (SP) (with architect Gret Loewensberg, whom he later
       married).
     * 1999: First woman President of the Confederation, Ruth Dreifuss
       (SP).

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