Monday, June 23, 2008

The assisted suicide of the smaller of the "Sister Republics" and it's assistants

Switzerland and the United States of America were considered, throughout the 19th century, as "sister republics", based on the similarities of their Constitutions.In Switzerland it was assumed that the United States had copied the Swiss political system, but this is clearly the result of complete historical ignorance. The Swiss were very much interested to know how the United States managed to overcome the colonial rule of the British Empire. An example: the first translation of the original text of the declaration of independence into German was published by the Swiss Isaac Iselin, secretary of state of the city republic of Basel (in: Ephemeriden der Menschheit, October 1776) http://www.dhm.de/magazine/unabhaengig/dippel_e.htm
And when Switzerland adopted a new Federal Constitution in 1848, after a short civil war between a separatist coalition of conservative, mainly roman catholic cantons (the so-called "Sonderbund") of central Switzerland against the radical liberal majority, it's parliamentary system became an exact copy of the American two chamber parliament, i.e. the  House of Representatives and the Senate. This choice was the fruit of more than a decade of patient lobbying for the American model of parliamentarism by a Swiss philosopher, Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler (1780-1866).The friendship of the unequal "Sister Republics" has survived many political storms but it may soon come to an end thanks to a form of "assisted political suicide".The subprime crisis, the subsequent downfall of UBS chairman Marcel Ospel and the latest developments in the law suit against former UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld may produce permanent damage to the image of Switzerland and to it's self-esteem, as a place where serious business is done in a clean way.If the youthful and dynamic Barack Obama is elected as President of the United States, a 21st century reenactment of the "New Deal" will most certainly take place,
and it may even take a nationalist(-social) turn, with harsh winds blowing over the Atlantic. The damage that Switzerland has done to itself by to closely linking it's political and economice fortunes to those of it's megalomaniac global banks
might lead to a softly assisted suicide of the smaller of the two Sister Republics",
will then weaken it's international stand in a way that may push it to take shelter in the arms of the European Union, thus committing an assisted suicide.
It may be the last consequence of a dubious tradition, initiated by Ludwig A Minelli, the founder of DIGNITAS, and Marcel Ospel may become the dignified assistant of the political suicide of a country that once was proud of it's independence.