Switzerland is a very small country, with a population of only 8.5 million (about the same as that of New York City) and a land mass about half that of Maine. Nonetheless it has four major language groups, two major religions, and a long history of bickering and mistrust between different regions. It is surrounded by much larger and powerful countries that have been at war with each other off and on over the centuries.
Yet Switzerland is one of the most stable democracies in the world. Founded in 1291 as a loose “confederation”, it has gone through a series of reshapings until it first got a Federal Constitution in 1848. That constitution was most recently revised in 1999. The Swiss Constitution was modeled on that of the United States but with a few significant changes that they made based on their long experience.
The Swiss Federal government has three branches, much like the US. It has a bi-cameral legislature with one house allocated by population and the other by “state” (they call them cantons, though each is the size of a typical American county). It has a Judiciary. But the big difference that I want to talk about here is in how they set up the Executive branch.
The Swiss Executive branch is responsible, as is ours, for overseeing the proper execution of laws passed by the legislature. It is divided into several departments, which are overseen by members of the Federal Council which is sort of like our “cabinet”. It is this council that is the significant difference between the Swiss and American federal governments.
- The Federal Council has seven members, elected (not appointed) to a four year term by the entire legislature. (See here for details on how this intricate voting is done.)
- The Federal Council works collegially and makes decisions by consensus.
- The Federal Council is, collectively, the head of state of Switzerland.
See what is missing? There is no one person in charge. There is a person with the title of “President” but he or she is just one of the Federal Council and they serve as President for one year, usually in rotation. The constitution prohibits a person from serving two consecutive terms. The President has no additional powers over the other members, and still has to perform their duties as head of their own department. All they get to do is chair the meetings. Many Swiss do not even know who the current president of Switzerland is, because it does not make any difference.
The picture above shows eight people and all the pictures I could find show eight. I think that the eighth one is probably the Federal Chancellor who is sort of chief of staff of the executive branch. He often sits in on Council meetings but does not have a vote.
So here is my idea if people are making wish lists for Amendments to the US Constitution: along with the Electoral College, just eliminate the offices of President and Vice President. Look at how much grief has been caused in recent decades by wacko or power-hungry presidents:
- Ronald Reagan invades Grenada without Congressional permission
- Ronald Reagan does a secret deal with Iran
- George H. W. Bush invades Kuwait and Iraq
- George W. Bush invades Iraq
- Donald Trump, well, too many to list
Hmm, all Republicans. How about that.
Our Founding Fathers main experience in governments was seeing how European countries operated, and back then they all had a strong, usually male, heads of state. Maybe alternatives did not occur to them. But 50 years later, the Swiss did think about it.
Note: there are other intersting aspects of the Swiss Constituion, such as being a direct Democracy: votes enacted by the Federal legislature can be overturned by a vote of the people. Get enough names on a petition and a group of people can actually introduce new constitutional amendments for a vote. (This has been tried, it rarely succeeds.) I am not proposing we adopt any of these ideas. I found it interesting that the Swiss Constituion does actually explicitly talk about the desire for music to be taught in school (article 67a) — the Swiss do not like leaving things to chance.
Also interesting is the fact that the Swiss Constitution starts with the rights of the people.