Little advice

The small council ( French: Petit Conseil ) was the canton's authority with extensive powers until 1798 in the towns of the Old Confederation .

The Small Council was made up of the city's highest officials and other citizens , most of whom came from a few long-established families. The Small Councils were abolished during the time of the Helvetic Republic . With the beginning of the mediation period in 1803 they were reintroduced as cantonal governments . In most of the cantons that had a small council , the name was replaced by government council in the course of the 19th century , see e.g. B. Small Council of the City of Basel . An exception is Graubünden , where the name was retained until 1971.

In contrast, there was the Great Council , which was primarily an advisory body to give the citizens a political weight, which today corresponds to the cantonal parliament .

Web links

• André Holenstein: Little advice. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .