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Switzerland and Swiss executive, Study notes of Political Science

Swiss executive, it's feature and revision work

Typology: Study notes

2020/2021

Available from 06/07/2022

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SWISS EXECUTIVE
Swiss executive is unique in some way. It is called collegial executive because seven
heads of department compose the executive and there is one president and vise
president who are annually chosen.
The swiss executive which is the plural executive. We can call it federal government or
federal council.
The federal assembly is made up of two chambers: the national council, with 200 seats;
and the council of state with 46 councilors.
It is collegial body which consist of seven members. All the powers are exercised by these
members collectively because they are all equal to each other. Though every year on a
rotation basis they will choose president and vise president.
The collegial executive of Switzerland is basically kind of imposed or made keeping in
mind the kind of diverse heterogeneous society that exists in there so there would be a
safety net for the minorities as well.
Whenever they choose they member of the executive , they chose people of excellence.
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SWISS EXECUTIVE

  • Swiss executive is unique in some way. It is called collegial executive because seven heads of department compose the executive and there is one president and vise president who are annually chosen.
  • The swiss executive which is the plural executive. We can call it federal government or federal council.
  • The federal assembly is made up of two chambers: the national council, with 200 seats; and the council of state with 46 councilors.
  • It is collegial body which consist of seven members. All the powers are exercised by these members collectively because they are all equal to each other. Though every year on a rotation basis they will choose president and vise president.
  • The collegial executive of Switzerland is basically kind of imposed or made keeping in mind the kind of diverse heterogeneous society that exists in there so there would be a safety net for the minorities as well.
  • Whenever they choose they member of the executive , they chose people of excellence.
  • Basically to the term of offices, normally what happens is that when people do there work so consensually, they are chosen again and again so as a result the minimum term of office a person may spend is ten year though there term of office is less like for instance the executive term is four years but people kind of chose them again due to the kind of work they do.
  • They are elected basically by the two houses of federal parliament. Each federal councilor will get a chance to act as a president and as a vise president with one years vice president becoming next years president of Switzerland and no single leader will be able to dominant because it is collegial executive meaning they do everything collectively.
  • So the representative which are chosen normally, they all represent a major parties and there is provision for also representation of certain language groups. As a result they are chosen in such a way that they are supposed to represent the Swiss's social fabric so there is more of a collegial rule and non parties in that sense because Despite the fact that there are different parties which may send forth there different candidates but they work collectively in the interest of country.
  • In the parliament when they are choosing the members they will not give much importance to the kind of party they belong to but the kind of experience, ability and work ethic that each councilor has. Even the councilors basically try to keep themselves away from any kind of
  • As a result a president cannot take the office for two consecutive years
  • During that period of time president act as the head of Switzerland and represent country in foreign basis and does all the functions that a head of department should do like ribbon cutting functions and ceremonial function
  • But he enjoys no extra power or privilege and is kind of co-equal with the seven members and all the decision are taken collectively and equally responsible all decisions.
  • If a member is not satisfies with decision he can raise his voice but when it comes to implementation than they have to implement the decision collectively
  • Limitation on membership is that If his member of federal parliament than you cannot hold the office of federal government
  • They are responsible for their work collectively but are not responsible to the parliament though parliament supervises their work , parament cannot make provision to remove them as such because they have stable tenure of 4 years
  • The question on them may not arrive as they are very hardworking people and are working for the interest of the country as a whole and are chosen on the basis of their merit.
  • When it comes to choosing the members of the swiss council their are certain kind of tings that should be kept in mind
  • One seat is given to offense speaking cantons. They have taken consideration the minorities and different kind of population living in Switzerland especially for the French speaking canton ward and Italian speaking canton also having one seat and two seats for Bern and Zurich, they are their in federal government and there is four seats that we talk about. They make sure that people related to blood cannot be member at same time
  • There is also seat for German speaking and as far as linguistically concern they have one seat for French speaking one for Italian speaking people and five seats for German speaking people. So that it makes it seven seats.
  • People related to blood or marriage cannot be members at the same time and two councilors cannot be form the same canton.
  • In a meeting there is quorum of four members out of the seven councilors members so the quorum is basically the least members required to hold a meeting
  • It also has appointment making powers. Those appointment which are already not made by the federal parliament or federal courts then the federal government making appointments.
  • It also enforces laws and decisions of the federal parliament which is the executive.
  • It controls the federal army , whenever the federal parliament is not in session because of some reasons then the federal troops can be called by the federal government.
  • Federal government also rectifies or sign some treaties. It has responsibility to implement federal laws and even cantonal law and international treaties are implemented by these body.
  • Sometime if there is dispute between cantons, then the decision taken by the federal court will be implemented by these particular body.
  • The members of the federal government are chosen by the joint session of the federal parliament and members of the federal government or council are not member of the federal parliament. Even if the member of the federal parliament is chosen in federal government then he has to resign the seat from the federal parliament.
  • Despite the fact that there is some kind of demarcation between the executive and legislature in Switzerland, the federal council i.e. the executive take part in debates in both the houses. They don’t have right to vote but they kind of influence the agenda of the meeting and are also influential in initiating certain kind of law making within the federal parliament and they will be drafting bills according to the demands of people and also have responsibility for enforcing any decision made by the legislature which is normally the work of executive.
  • when there is division of power between executive, legislature and judiciary then the work of legislature is law making and it is work of executive to implement it so in these case also the federal council or federal government as the executive implements the law made by the legislature.
  • By the approval of federal parliament, the federal council carry outs the financial administration.
  • The federal parliament gives the certain kind of powers to the federal government specifically or the if constitution itself has specified some powers then it can also then it can also make laws in the form of ordinances.

Revision work

  • The collegial executive is a feature of plural branch of government in

Switzerland.

  • There are seven members of the federal government who exercise executive

powers.

  • All seven members take decisions collectively.
  • One of its seven members is elected as president and another as vice president.
  • In the next year the vice president becomes the president while a new president

is elected.

  • The president of federation performs all the functions of the head of the state for

one year.

  • The swiss federal government enjoy a fixed term of four years.
  • on an average a swiss federal government tends to serve at least around ten years in office.
  • It is normally said that collective responsibility is not a feature of swiss executive though they have a close relation with the federal council.
  • The swiss executive cannot be voted out of power by swiss parliament.