Sunday, December 16, 2007

Why Switzerland is still very special: Sovereignty of the people, Freedom of parliament, Gender Ratio in the Government and Rumantsch Grischun

The international echoes to the failed reelection of Swiss People's Party leader
Cristoph Bocher as a member of the Federal Council (the Swiss government) by the federal two chamber parliament show hwo difficult it is to understand the Swiss Federal Constitution for those who are not familiar with the rules of direct democracy.
In fact, the federal parliament is free to choose as members of the government any person that is considered fit to fulfill the difficult task of being a member of he executive and a representative of the major political movements present in the country. The Swiss government is in a certain way a technocratic government, and one of Christoph Blocher's is main objectives was to transform it into a political one.
If his party now is crying loudly about treason of the will of the electorate, it is neglecting the important fact that Switzerland is in the unique position to guarantee the sovereignty of the people in two ways: a) in electing a parliament and b) in correcting the acts of parliament and government by popular initiatives and popular referenda. By limiting the exertion of power by the people to these two channels, the Swiss Constitution guarantees a certain stability in the decission-making pocess by parliament and government. While in most parliamentary democracies,
the paricipation of the people in policy-making is limited to the parliamentary elections, the results of which determinate the acts of the government, the Swiss electorate can interfere throughout the electoral cycle with the decisions of both parliament and government. Christoph Blocher's claim to reinforce direct democracy
by asking for a majority government has not been accepte by the majority of the parliament, and, as a recent public poll published today by the Sunday press has shown,his non-election is being accepted by a majority of the public (which is not identical with the electorate in a population where one third is non Swiss and where only about 5 in ten citizens are actively participating in the political decision-making (popular votes, elections).

One important aspect of the non-election of Christoph Blocher risks to be neglected:
by electing Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, the parliament has produced an important gender shift within the government: three out of seven ministers now are women, and if the Federal Chancellor, Ms. Casanova (the secretary general and speaker of the government) is included in the gender count during the ministerial rounds, the gender ratio is now 1:1.
Another special feature of the new government: Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf and Ms. Casanova are both natives of the Canton of Grisons and fluent in the fourth national language: Rumantsch Grischun.