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About Switzerland

The origins of the Swiss Confederation as an independent state date back to 1291 and the federal republic's constitution of 1874 is still largely in place.

The Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (in German), Confédération Suisse (in French), or Confederazione Svizzera (in Italian) is a multilingual patchwork of 26 cantons. Six of these are French-speaking (in the south west around Geneva and Lausanne). One is Italian-speaking (Ticino in the south) and one [Graubünden (German) or Grisons (French) in the south east] has a small Romansch-speaking community (Romansch is a group of Rhaeto-Romanic dialects spoken by less than 1% of the population). The remainder are German-speaking (64% of the total population of some 7.3m).

Each canton has its own constitution and legislative body responsible for local issues (and is effectively the most powerful tier of government) whilst the two chambers of the Federal Assembly wield power at a national and, mainly, international level. Switzerland is also divided into over 3,000 communes, which again have significant autonomy. Moreover, the Swiss enjoy a considerable degree of direct democracy, in which referendums frequently play an important part.

Such a fragmented system of government that devolves almost everything to a local, even individual, level seems like a recipe for anarchy but this is not at all the case. Somehow the spirit of William Tell gives Switzerland a remarkable cohesiveness. Whereas Belgium, similarly a state of mixed languages and administrative complexity, survives by largely circumventing its interminable rules and regulations, the Swiss have become one of the richest peoples on the planet through hard work and, above all, consensus.

In The Third Man Harry Lime may have dismissed hundreds of years of fraternal harmony as culminating in no more than the cuckoo clock, but peaceful neutrality has bred stability and stability breeds prosperity. The Swiss consensus is founded in common principles of civic responsibility and general welfare (Pflege), a (Protestant) work ethic, and a certain pragmatism that verges on crude self-interest. The latter manifests itself in the 'neutral' banking secrecy that has inevitably led to accusations of money-laundering but the obsession with supreme efficiency, quality and service has resulted in the conviction that 'Swiss is best.'

Consensus-building, balance and continuity are the key characteristics of a country that is the epitome of the universal maxim that 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

The capital, Bern(e), and the two major business centres – Basel and Zürich – are German-speaking, but Swiss German (Schwyzerdütsch) is very different from standard German (Hochdeutsch) and even a competent German-speaker will have difficulty picking up some of the many distinct dialects. Fortunately, the use of Schwyzerdütsch is usually restricted to private conversations or non-official situations and almost all German-speaking Swiss can use standard High German in more formal situations; certainly you will find that all documents etc. are written in standard German.
Perhaps more importantly, the majority of German- or French-speaking Swiss businessmen are also accomplished speakers of English. The monoglot visitor may, however, find it more difficult to communicate in the Italian-speaking area, which includes Locarno and Lugano.

Geneva [Genève (French), Genf (German) or Ginevra (Italian)], on the other hand, is a truly international city that plays host to the headquarters of EFTA, GATT, the IRC and the WHO as well as ten other UN agencies. This internationalist outlook may seem surprising – Switzerland became a member of the UN only in 2002 – and, despite the linguistic differences, it is indeed a strongly united country that prizes its long-standing independence and neutrality. Thus, although Switzerland's main trading partners by far (61% of exports and 80% of imports in 2002) are the members of the European Union (especially Germany), it has no immediate plans to join the EU after Swiss voters rejected opening talks on membership in a 2001 referendum.

Membership of the EEA (a prelude to full membership of the EU) was equally rejected in a referendum in 1992, but Bern(e) continues to pursue a policy of co-operation with Brussels, particularly in the areas of free trade and free movement of labour, that is likely to lead to the opening up of the Swiss market, which has hitherto been highly regulated and dominated by anti-competitive cartels. The protectionism that the Swiss practice at home will presumably yield in due course to the principles of the free market that they embrace abroad. There is then an extensive range of bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EU. The currency remains the strong Swiss Franc.

Text – Executive Planet

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