Federal Department

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The federal departments of Switzerland are administrative units at the federal level ( federal administration ) that are directly subordinate to the Federal Council ( government ) and are structured according to subject areas .

organization

Each of the seven departments ( ministries ) is headed by a Federal Council. In addition, there is the Federal Chancellery , headed by the Federal Chancellor , as a government department. The directors of the federal offices , i.e. the administrative departments that are subordinate to the departments, are elected by the entire Federal Council; the state secretaries, the armaments chief, the two vice chancellors, the head of financial control and other top executives are appointed by the entire Federal Council. However, they are responsible for their work to the relevant head of department.

The Federal Councilors have a double function. As members of the government and thus in the college , they are jointly responsible for government activities. In addition, they lead a department and represent its tasks and assignments in the college.

Federal Councilors are elected by parliament into the college and not into a department. The Federal Councilors decide on the distribution of the departments among themselves after the elections. They also regulate representation.

Since the beginning of the state in 1848, the tasks have expanded and changed significantly, so the offices have grown, some have been merged or dissolved. The federal administration now has around 38,000 employees. The number of federal councilors and departments has remained the same to this day. The weighting and areas of responsibility of the departments have changed over the years.

The federal administration is divided into seven departments:

History, development

In Helvetic Republic, the directorate ran ministries consisting of paid professional magistrates. The federal charter of 1832 (Rossi Plan) provided for four departments - external, internal, war and finance. The war and finance departments should be administered by federal commissions. The departmental organizational principle provided that the Federal Council members would be elected as department heads - as is still the case in Appenzell Innerrhoden today . So you couldn't have divided the departments among yourself, as is customary today.

When the state was founded in 1848, the aim was to establish a connection between the collegiate and departmental systems . The government system that had already proven itself in some radical cantons was adopted for the executive. This also gave the Federal Council a dual role. The Federal Constitution laid down the division into departments as well as the new College of the Federal Council, which as the highest executive and executive power was directly linked to the administration.

Initially the collegial system was in the foreground. As today, the departments were headed by a single member of the Federal Council. But at that time the individual business transactions were simple and manageable, which made it easier for the Federal Council to work together. With the quantitatively and qualitatively growing task load of the federal government, the number of federal offices and thus the size of the departments has increased continuously. With the total revision of the Federal Constitution of 1874, the areas of responsibility of the federal government were greatly expanded, following the division of business into special areas (1873). The college of the Federal Council retained the decision-making authority, but the political weight of the departments grew.

Development of the federal departments from 1848 until today
1848-1849 		  
Political Department 		  
Department of the Interior 		  
Justice and Police
Department 		  
Military
department 		  
Finance
department 		  
Trade and Customs Department 		  
Post and Construction Department 		  
1848-1849
1860 		           
Post Department
1860
1873 		       
Finance and Customs Department
Railway and Commerce
Department
Post and Telegraph
Department
1873
1879 		         

Department of Commerce and Agriculture
Post and Railway
Department
1879
1888
Department of Foreign Affairs 		       
Industry and Agriculture
Department 		 
1888
1896
Political Department 		       

Department of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture		  
1896
1915 		         

Department of Economics		  
1915
1963 		           
Transport and energy
economics
department
1963
1979
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA)
Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA)
Federal Department of Justice and Police
(FDJP)
Federal Military
Department (EMD)
Federal Department of Finance
(FDF)
Federal Department of Economics
(FDEA)
Federal transport and energy
economics
department (EVED)
1979
1998 		     
Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) 		   
Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication (DETEC)
1998
2013
Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER)
2013
today EDA EDI FDJP VBS EVS WBF DETEC

Departments of the cantons, communes

In the cantons there are similar administrative departments (directorates , departments) which carry out preparatory and executive tasks as well as the supervision of subordinate official bodies and which are each headed by a member of the executive. The cantons usually have between five and ten such departments.

At the level of municipalities , there are the departments of the local government in the West Switzerland also dicastères , in the Italian part of Switzerland dicasteri called.

literature

  • Urs Altermatt : The Swiss Federal Councilors. A biographical lexicon , Artemis and Winkler, Zurich 1991, 1992 (also in Italian and French).
  • Dian Schefold: Popular sovereignty and representative democracy in the Swiss regeneration , Helbing and Lichtenhahn, 1966.
  • Kurt Eichenberger: The State of the Present: Selected Writings , Helbing and Lichtenhahn, 1980.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sources: Urs Altermatt : The Swiss Federal Councilors , Federal Administration ( admin.ch ), HLS