Two charts to explain how governmental power is shared in Switzerland

Switzerland prevents the concentration of power at the federal level, and then that it carries the same philosophy downward through the cantons and communes.

Power Shared, Power Decentralised

Switzerland’s political system rests on an idea that is surprisingly radical in an age of increasingly powerful central governments: power should not be concentrated in one place. It should be shared, divided and kept close to the people.

This principle can be seen at the very top of government in the way Switzerland organises its Federal Council, but it extends much further. Power is progressively decentralised from the federal level to the cantons and then to the communes, creating a system in which decisions are made as close as possible to the people affected by them.

At the federal level, Switzerland deliberately avoids placing executive authority in the hands of a single dominant leader. The seven-member Federal Council governs collectively, with the presidency rotating annually between its members.

The Swiss president is not a ruler standing above the government, but a first among equals who chairs meetings, represents the country and speaks on behalf of the Federal Council. The important decisions are made collectively.

This is leadership by rotation rather than by ascension. Switzerland recognises something that political history repeatedly demonstrates: people are not immune to the temptations of power.

The longer power remains concentrated in one individual, the greater the opportunity for personality, ambition and influence to become embedded in the system. Switzerland instead creates structures that make the accumulation of personal power difficult.

But the Swiss instinct to distribute power does not stop at the Federal Council. It is built into the very architecture of the state.

From the Federation to the Canton

Switzerland is a federation of 26 cantons, each with a remarkable degree of political autonomy. A canton is more than simply a region or administrative division.

It has its own constitution, parliament, government and courts, and retains responsibility for many important areas of public life.

Education, policing, healthcare, taxation and many other matters can therefore be organised differently from one canton to another.

The federal government establishes the framework for the country as a whole, but the cantons have considerable freedom to determine how that framework works in practice.

This creates something unusual in modern governance: political competition within the same country. Cantons can learn from one another.

They can experiment with different approaches. A policy that works well in one canton can become an example for another, while an unsuccessful approach can be abandoned without requiring the entire country to follow the same path.

It also means that citizens have a much closer relationship with political power. A decision taken at the cantonal level is not an abstract decision made by a distant central authority. It affects a defined community whose citizens can see its consequences, compare them with neighbouring cantons and ultimately express their judgement through the political process and direct democracy.

The Commune: Democracy at Ground Level

Below the cantons sits an even more local level of government: the commune, or municipality. Switzerland has more than 2,000 communes, ranging from large urban municipalities to small Alpine communities.

The commune is the level of government closest to everyday life. It deals with matters that citizens can see and experience directly:

• local planning

• schools

• roads

• waste collection

• water

• cultural facilities

• local infrastructure

• other community services

This proximity matters. When government is close to the people, the consequences of political decisions become visible. Citizens know their communities, they know the problems and, often, they know the people responsible for solving them. Accountability becomes personal rather than abstract.

The Swiss system therefore works almost like a pyramid turned upside down.

Rather than assuming that every important decision should rise towards the centre, responsibility is distributed downwards.

• The federal government deals with matters that genuinely require a national approach,

• while cantons retain authority over matters better handled at their level,

• and communes deal with matters that are fundamentally local.

The underlying philosophy is closely related to subsidiarity: decisions should be taken by the smallest or most local competent authority capable of dealing with them effectively.

Direct Democracy Connects the Levels

NOTE: Decentralisation by itself, however, does not necessarily produce democracy. A country could distribute administrative responsibilities among different levels of government while still leaving citizens largely powerless.

What makes the Swiss model distinctive is that decentralisation is reinforced by direct democracy.

Citizens are not simply choosing representatives at each level and then surrendering their influence until the next election.

Depending on the level and the specific rules involved, Swiss citizens can use referendums and popular initiatives to challenge decisions, propose changes and influence the direction of government.

This creates an important relationship between power and accountability. The further power is distributed, the closer citizens are to the institutions exercising it; and the more directly citizens can intervene, the harder it becomes for those institutions to operate without public scrutiny.

The system therefore creates multiple points of democratic accountability. Power does not flow only from the top down. Influence can also flow from the bottom up.

A Different Understanding of Freedom

There is a deeper philosophy behind this structure. Switzerland does not appear to place its faith primarily in finding the right person to govern.

It places greater faith in creating a system in which no single person, institution or level of government can easily dominate the whole.

That is an important distinction.

Many political systems depend heavily on leadership. Elections become contests between personalities, parties compete for control of the central government, and political power can become increasingly concentrated around whoever wins national office.

Switzerland takes almost the opposite approach. It reduces the importance of the individual by strengthening the system around them.

• The Federal Council shares executive authority. The presidency rotates.

• The cantons retain substantial sovereignty.

• Communes retain responsibility for local affairs.

Citizens possess direct democratic tools to intervene in decisions. Political power is therefore dispersed across people, institutions, territories and levels of government.

It is difficult for power to crystallise when it is constantly being divided, rotated and returned to the people.

So why does it matter?

This may help explain one of the great paradoxes of Switzerland. A country that appears, from the outside, to have a complicated and fragmented political structure has nevertheless achieved remarkable stability and continuity. This is the "inconvenient truth" globalists do not want others to understand.

Its strength does not come from eliminating differences. Switzerland is a country of multiple languages, cultures, regions, religions, traditions and political perspectives. Instead of attempting to overcome that diversity by imposing uniformity from the centre, the system accommodates it by distributing power.

The canton can be different from its neighbour. The commune can be different from another commune.

Citizens can disagree with their government and challenge its decisions. Yet the system remains intact because disagreement is not treated as a threat to the system. It is part of the system.

This is perhaps the most important lesson. Switzerland does not achieve unity by concentrating power. It achieves unity by sharing it.

Power Does Not Ascend to a Throne

From the seven members of the Federal Council to the 26 cantons and more than 2,000 communes, Switzerland has constructed layers of government in which power is deliberately dispersed.

And surrounding all of it is direct democracy, giving citizens the ability not merely to elect those who govern them but, under the appropriate mechanisms, to challenge, influence and decide upon important questions themselves.

The result is a very different conception of democratic government. The strength of the state does not depend upon the strength of one leader. The effectiveness of government does not require everything to be controlled from the centre. And democracy is not something that happens only on election day.

Power is shared. Responsibility is distributed. Decisions are made closer to the people. And citizens remain connected to the exercise of political power.

While many systems build political structures around individuals, Switzerland has spent generations building a system designed to outlast them.

Power does not ascend to a throne.

It rotates around the table, flows through the cantons, reaches the communes and, ultimately, returns to the people.

How about in your country?