Federalism in Switzerland

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In Switzerland , federalism and subsidiarity have been fundamental principles of the federal state since it was founded in 1848.

principle

The main idea is to transfer responsibility, if possible, to smaller structures where there is greater proximity to those affected: from the federal government to the cantons , from the cantons to the communes . Ideally, this leads to laws and regulations that are tailored to local needs, which on the one hand should increase their acceptance and on the other hand result in fruitful competition between cantons and municipalities for lower taxes, more efficient public administration and other locational advantages. However, in comparison to the centralized state, assuming equally efficiently organized structures, this increases government and administrative expenses, the differences in the legal systems lead to additional costs for citizens and companies and are made more difficult to move (e.g. change of residence of the cantonal school system).

The article of the Federal Constitution on which this principle is based reads:

Art. 3 The cantons are sovereign insofar as their sovereignty is not restricted by the federal constitution; they exercise all rights that are not vested in the federal government.

The member states or states of Switzerland have fully developed state structures and thus their own political institutions for the executive , legislative and judicial branches . In this respect, Swiss federalism corresponds to that of Germany and the United States of America, which have also historically been built from the bottom up. However, it differs from federalism in countries such as Austria or Belgium, which were first a unitary state before they were federalized and whose sub-states only have an incomplete statehood in that the judiciary has remained a matter of the central state.

Swiss federalism is the expression of a liberal concept of the state (lean state). For decades, however, there have been tendencies towards unitarization, which, with reference to the need for uniform regulation and duplication, curtail cantonal competencies. It is also complained that the increasing inter-cantonal cooperation at the level of regionally and objectively defined intergovernmental conferences (eastern Switzerland intergovernmental conference, conference of directors of education, etc.) and concordats have led to a new, democratically weakly legitimized state level between the federal government and the cantons that is blurring competencies.

Task sharing

The federal government may only take on tasks that are expressly assigned to it in the federal constitution. All other state tasks are regulated by the cantons (or delegated by them to the communes). Since the constitutional amendments cantons (majority of cantons) is necessary, the cantons may be deprived of his powers or additionally transmitted when, together with the majority of voters, the majority of the cantons agrees.

The federal government is fully or largely responsible for legislation on ( Art. 54–125 ):

The following are largely or completely within the legislative competence of the cantons:

Many tasks are shared.

  • It often happens that the federal government draws up general rules and the cantons are responsible for shaping them. This applies, for example, to spatial planning or forest law.
  • Another option that is often used is for the federal government to regulate some aspects and the cantons to regulate the other. In hunting law, for example, federal law regulates game protection, cantonal law regulates the hunting system , in fishing law the federal government regulates species protection, the cantons the use of stocks, permitted fishing gear, etc., or in water law the federal government regulates water protection, the cantons water use, or Legal law the Confederation the freedom of movement of lawyers, the cantons the acquisition of the bar license.
  • There are also parallel competencies, especially in the cultural area, in which the federal government, cantons and municipalities can each take measures independently.
  • Even where the federal government regulates substantive law, the cantons are often responsible for specific implementation. The organizational and procedural provisions required for this are then enacted in cantonal introductory laws.

Another variant of the legislation are the concordats between the cantons : several (or even all) cantons agree, independently of the federal government, to jointly solve certain tasks from their area of ​​responsibility (universities of applied sciences, teacher training, prison system). The cantons can also conclude contracts abroad in their areas of responsibility.

Participation in federal matters

The cantons are involved in the federal government and in the federal parliament in six main ways:

  • In the event of a consultation , all affected cantons are invited to comment. You can let your views flow before the law is even formulated.
  • The small chamber of parliament, the Council of States , is often referred to as the “representation of the cantons”, but this is not the case: Councilors of States vote without instructions from their cantons and are completely free to exercise their mandate (“Senate model”). Each canton has two councilors (one half-cantons ), which are usually elected by the people in a majority vote. All federal resolutions require the approval of the Council of States and the National Council .
  • Constitutional amendments necessarily require the majority of the people and the majority of the cantons .
  • The individual cantonal governments try to influence the government and the federal parliamentarians directly (“ lobbying ”).
  • The members of the cantonal governments come together in various “conferences” (e.g. conference of directors of education, conference of health directors), which exert considerable political weight.
  • The cantons conclude so-called concordats with one another and / or with the Confederation , i. H. State treaties which oblige the cantons to cooperate in certain areas and which can become important throughout Switzerland. Prominent examples are the agreement on cooperation in higher education as the basis of the Swiss University Conference or the inter-cantonal agreement on the harmonization of compulsory education, or HarmoS Concordat for short .

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bardo Fassbender, Raffael Gübeli: The currently valid international treaties of the cantons. Attempt a systematic inventory. In: Schweizerisches Zentralblatt für Staats- und Verwaltungsrecht 3, 2018, pp. 107–123 and I – XLVII ( digitized version ).