Introduction: Why Switzerland?*

This article explores lessons from the contemporary

Swiss experience of nation-building as well as their

applicability to confl ict-affected multi-national

societies searching for long-term visions of inter-

communal coexistence. The question under study

is how to defi ne essential qualities of a collective

historical experience capable of fostering a mutually

acceptable and sustainable way of coexistence

among historically divided national communities.

This inquiry highlights a long-term view of history

and future prospects because nation-building is

necessarily a trans-generational process that far

exceeds the conventional political time frames of

months to years, with which government-led peace

processes are usually concerned.

From a political and legal standpoint, the Swiss

experience of nation-building has evolved around

the long-term process of developing a functional

federal state. As Yash Ghai (1998), a leading expert

on constitution building, notes, federalism is a form of

governance in which “power is devolved equally to all

regions and each region has an identical relationship to

the central government” (p.156). Such an egalitarian

arrangement of governance, however, has rarely

been actualized in contemporary international

relations, especially among ethno-linguistically and

culturally diverse communities that struggle to fi nd

a mutually acceptable way of living together within

the same territorial boundaries. Notable exceptions

to this challenge of coexistence include Switzerland,

Belgium, and Malaysia – three countries whose

systems of multi-national federalism have more or

less successfully prevented intercommunal differences

from degenerating into large-scale violence, while

20

* An opportunity granted to the author to deliver a public lecture on reconciliation and engage in lively discussions with participants in Waseda University’s Organization for Regional and Inter-regional Studies (ORIS) conference on November 26, 2015 contributed to the development of the Swiss model presented in this article. A special note of appreciation is due to ORIS and the conference participants.

Lessons from the Swiss Experience of Nation-Building:

Implications for Multi-National Societies in Confl ict

Tatsushi Arai, PhD

Special Article

building sustainable practices of coexistence across

generations. (See Watts (2008) for useful descriptions

of these and other examples of federalism.) Swiss

federalism in particular, for its longevity and maturity,

stands out among these notable exceptions and justifi es

being the focus of special inquiry.

Historically, Switzerland’s adaptation of federalism

in the mid-nineteenth century was a national response

to its civil war in November 1847. The war was fought

between progressive protestant cantons constituting a

majority in the Swiss confederation, on the one hand,

and the alliance of seven conservative catholic cantons

feeling increasingly marginalized, on the other. The

end of the six centuries of a loose confederal pact

among its sovereign cantons as well as their transition

to build a more unifi ed federal state therefore represent

these cantons’ and their constituent communities’

collective endeavor in confl ict management and

national reconciliation. Viewed from this historical

perspective, the last one and a half centuries of Swiss

national experience illustrate a grand experiment in

the transformation of the Swiss communities’ long-

standing confl ict. (For a brief overview of basic facts

about today’s Switzerland, see the appendix.)

While confl ict-affected societies in search of new

models of inter-communal coexistence and functional

governance frequently make a cursory reference to

the Swiss model, this author’s extensive experience

as a peacebuilding trainer and mediator suggests that

confl ict parties and stakeholders who would benefi t

greatly from an in-depth understanding of the Swiss

experience rarely have such an understanding. This

problem is attributed in part to the dearth of clear,

concise, and accessible case studies of the Swiss

experience that unfamiliar confl ict parties and

intermediaries can learn from and easily grasp. This

article seeks to meet this challenge and address the

collective need of policy-oriented practitioners,

civil society leaders, researchers, students, and other

stakeholders interested in nation-building, transitional

governance, and inter-communal coexistence. It will

do so by articulating the defi ning characteristics of

Swiss nation-building, federalism, and intercommunal

coexistence based on the fi ndings from a literature

review and fi eld research in Switzerland. The

concluding part of the article will draw implications

for deeply divided multi-national countries striving to

develop a long-term vision of coexistence.

Findings: Defi ning Characteristics of the Swiss Model

A series of in-depth interviews were conducted in

August 2012 with cantonal government offi cials, civil

society leaders, and other informed stakeholders in

two multi-national cantons. One of them is Fribourg,

a canton comprised of a Francophone majority and

a German-speaking minority, which represents

a reversal of the country’s general demographic

balance. The other canton is Graubuden, in which

a German-speaking majority lives side by side

with Italian and Romansh-speaking minorities

across the sparsely populated southeastern region

bordering Italy, Liechtenstein, and Austria. These

two cantons were selected because of their highly

unique demographic compositions that illustrate

distinct and enduring characteristics of majority-

minority relations in Switzerland. These interviews,

supplemented by relevant literature, suggest twelve

salient characteristics of the Swiss model. This article

helped articulate these characteristics in three general

categories, namely, the historical evolution of Swiss

federalism, Swiss foreign and defense policies, and

the basic structures and practices of Swiss federalism.

The historical evolution of Swiss federalism1. Joint independence: Throughout modern

European history, the alliance of autonomous

Swiss nations sought to attain “joint independence”

21

Contact: tatsushi.arai@sit.edu

Associate Professor of Peacebuilding and Confl ict Transformation, School for International Training (SIT) Graduate Institute, USA

Fellow, Center for Peacemaking Practice, School for Confl ict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, USA

Lessons from the Swiss Experience of Nation-Building: Implications for Multi-National Societies in Conflict — Tatsushi Arai

(Galtung 2004: 67) from hegemonic conquests

and interferences from Germany, Austria,

France, Italy, and other external powers. Today,

Swiss national consciousness is so deep-rooted

that the diverse linguistic communities within

Switzerland, regardless of their differences,

identify with their own united motherland,

not with the neighboring countries with which

the Swiss have historical and linguistic ties

(Interviews in Fribourg on August 19, 2012).

2. Multi-national statehood: Switzerland is a

multi-national country whose constitution

ensures the equality among its four national-

linguistic constituent groups. In terms of the

mother languages spoken, 65 percent of Swiss

citizens speak German, 23 percent French,

8 percent Italian, and 0.5 percent Romansh

with significant overlaps between them. (See

the map below.) Nine percent of the people

in Switzerland speak other languages as their

native tongues, for about 20 percent of Swiss

residents are foreign nationals. The protection

of minority rights is not only constitutionally

ensured but also generally implemented through

a widespread social and cultural practice of

majority reaching out to minority, to realize

coexistence among all communities. Diverse

examples reported by the interviewees include

the Francophone majority making special

accommodations for the German-speaking

minority in Fribourg and the German-speaking

majority doing the same to the Italian and

Romansh-speaking minorities in Graubunden,

in order to ensure these minorities’ access to

education, employment, social welfare, and

other basic needs.

22

Map of Switzerland

23

3. From confederal to federal governance: The

Swiss confederation was established in the

thirteenth century as a loosely-coordinated

security alliance among small sovereign states.

The confederation had lasted till 1848, when

Switzerland adopted a new constitution to

establish a federation as a collective response

to the devastating experience of the civil war in

1847. The new constitution enabled the unified

Swiss nation to establish joint foreign, security

and fiscal policies at the federal level, while

safeguarding the autonomy of the respective

cantons (local units of governance) to decide

on other matters. The revised constitution of

1874 expanded the right of the cantons and

their citizens to initiate referendums at the

federal level, while it had essentially kept

the content of the 1848 constitution intact. In

1999, after a century and a half of continuous

evolution and development, the constitution

was revised again to update its language

and enhance its readability and accessibility

based on nationwide consensus-building, two

years of parliamentary debate, and finally, a

successful referendum (Haller 2009: 7-14).

Foreign and defense policies4. Permanent neutrality: Switzerland’s permanent

neutrality was established in the Congress

of Vienna in 1815, in which major European

powers sought to overcome the devastating

effects of the French Revolutionary Wars and

the Napoleonic Wars while striving to establish

a sustainable balance of power among them

for regional stability. Consistent with this

historical legacy of neutrality, today Switzerland

continuously refrains from participating in such

military alliances as the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO). However, Switzerland

plays an active role in organizations for

confidence-building such as the Organization

for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

In addition, Switzerland is an active member

of the Council of Europe (membership since

1963), the European Convention on Human

Rights (since 1974), and the United Nations

(since 2002). Importantly, Swiss voters have

so far rejected their accession to the European

Union to maintain Switzerland’s economic

and political independence, while generally

supporting a well-defined scope of specialized

agreements with the EU and with its member

states to ensure freedom of movement across

national borders. Consequently, Switzerland

has largely succeeded in becoming an

integral part of the European economy: as of

2015, for example, there are 750,000 people

and 35,000 vehicles coming in and out of

Switzerland daily from its five neighboring

countries – Germany, France, Italy, Austria,

and Liechtenstein (Geiser 2015). It must be

noted, however, that the recent significant

increase in the number of immigrants and

European workers taking advantage of the

Swiss open borders is causing many Swiss

citizens a great deal of concern, as reflected

in the national referendum in February 2014,

through which the Swiss voters decided

to restrict European workers’ access to the

Swiss labor market. Moreover, the continuous

influx of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan,

Eretria, and elsewhere compelled the Swiss

to accept the EU’s relocation scheme adopted

in September 2015 (World Politics Review,

November 23, 2015). The Swiss acceptance

of the EU scheme highlights the need for the

Swiss nation to ask how to uphold its time-

honored neutrality principle and at the same

time, work within the EU-sponsored regional

rules to face Europe’s shared crisis.Adopted from the Pinterest website at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/334673816035296764/ (accessed January 25, 2016)

SWITZERLAND’S NATIONAL LANGUAGES

FRANCEGERMANY

LIECHTENSTEIN

AUSTRIA

ITALY

French-speaking

German-speaking

Romansch-speaking

Italian-speaking

Geneva

Lausanne

Bern

Basel Zurich

Swiss Alps

Region where anational languagepredominates

Lessons from the Swiss Experience of Nation-Building: Implications for Multi-National Societies in Conflict — Tatsushi Arai

5. Proactive engagement in mediation and

conciliation: Stimulated in part by Switzerland’s

accession to the United Nations in 2002,

today’s Swiss foreign policy seeks to practice

its enduring commitment to neutrality in

a proactive, adaptive, and context-specific

manner in order to meet the increasingly

globalized and diversified security needs. In

addition to playing an intermediary role in

securing a sustained, mutually acceptable

channel of communication between countries

that do not have diplomatic relations, including

between the United States and Cuba (till 2015),

the United States and Iran, and India and

Pakistan, Switzerland has played a catalytic

role in mediating protracted inter- and intra-

national conflicts. It engaged, for example,

the Nepali government, the Maoist resistance

movement, and various political parties from

2001 through 2005 through humanitarian

and development channels (Wennmann

2011: 91), brokered a ceasefire between the

Sudanese Government and the southern-based

Sudan People’s Liberation Army in 2002,

and supported Hamas-Fatah relationship-

building over many years in Palestine.

Moreover, by 2013, the Swiss government

assigned peacebuilding experts to nineteen

of its embassies to enhance Switzerland’s

capacity to support context-specific mediation

and conciliation activities in diverse conflict-

affected countries (Interview at the Swiss

embassy in Yangon, Myanmar on August 2,

2013).

6. Defensive defense: Switzerland upholds its

long-standing principle of defensive defense.

According to Fischer (1982), defensive

defense consists of building and exercising

invulnerability, an ability to resist harms

done by others without using offensive

power to harm others. The Swiss adaptation

of defensive defense in particular prioritizes

building the main portion of its military

machinery inside its territory away from its

borders, while equipping its military with more

short-range than long-range weaponry to avoid

provocation (Galtung 2004: 67-68). The basic

mission of the Swiss military is to serve as “an

instrument of permanent armed neutrality”

(Interview with Swiss military personnel in

Bern on August 20, 2012). To meet this goal,

military service is mandatory for all eligible

Swiss citizens (see the appendix for details),

who make up in effect for a broad-based, well-

regulated civilian militia. Today, the Swiss

military focuses increasingly on such emerging

security challenges as terrorism and natural

disasters, and departs from its traditional

emphasis on conventional measures aimed at

coping with cross-border military invasions

(Interviews with Swiss military personnel in

Bern on August 20, 2012).

7. A currency union with Liechtenstein:

Switzerland shares an open border, a

currency union (using Swiss francs), a

policy of neutrality, and direct democracy

with Lichtenstein, another non-EU member

with a small German-speaking population

of 35,000. While Lichtenstein has its own

independent parliament and government

under constitutional monarchy, it makes an

effective use of its two open borders, one with

Switzerland to the west and the other with

Austria to the east, to maintain highly integrated

relationships with its two larger neighbors.

Lichtenstein takes advantage of the shared

benefits of globalization with them through

transportation (through Austrian railways and

a Swiss-affiliated bus company), banking

services, commerce, tourism, and education,

24 25

among other areas of activities. Switzerland-

Lichtenstein relations thus demonstrate an

asymmetrical yet symbiotic system of shared

governance. This unique system rests on

the two countries’ shared commitment to a

currency union, an open border, and their

bounded history of neutrality, all of which

evolved outside the institutional framework

of the European Union while simultaneously

complementing it.

The basic structures and practices of Swiss federalism

8. Direct democracy: Swiss citizens practice

direct democracy with a frequent use of

referendums. Switzerland has a little over one

percent of the world’s population yet conducted

sixty percent of the world’s referenda in

the twentieth century (Galtung 2004: 68).

Collection of 100,000 signatures enables

Swiss citizens to call for a referendum. This

form of people’s direct participation, known as

initiative, is practiced at the federal, cantonal,

and communal levels.

9. A permanent multi-national coalition

government: The executive function of the

federation is performed by a cabinet, which

in effect serves as a permanent coalition

government. Seven cabinet members elected

by, and typically from, the legislature for a

four-year term constitute the Federal Council,

an executive branch. These executive members

represent both the cantons and political parties,

and by implication, the four linguistic groups

at least indirectly, in an attempt to realize

an equitable multi-partial representation of

diverse national constituencies. The seven

cabinet members of the Federal Council take

turns to serve presidency in one-year terms.

The president works more as a team leader of

the Federal Council than a dominant leader

capable of yielding overriding power over

other cabinet members.

10. Bicameral legislature: The Federal Assembly

is bicameral. It is modelled on the legislative

mechanism established by the American

constitution in 1787. The Federal Assembly

consists of the National Council, which is

comprised of representatives elected by

popular vote on the basis of proportional

representation (reflected in political parties’

electoral performances), and the Council of

States, which models on the US senate and

made up of two delegates each of the twenty

full cantons and one from each of the six half

cantons.

11. Cantons as small, diverse governing units:

Switzerland has twenty six cantons, six of them

half cantons that resulted from historical splits.

Cantons are highly autonomous self-governing

units, all relatively small in size, thus useful

as an institutional safeguard again a possible

domination by any of the four linguistic groups.

There are one Romansh-speaking canton

(Graubunden, in which Italian and German are

also spoken as official languages), one Italian-

speaking canton, four Francophone-majority

(including Fribourg, mentioned above) and

two partially Francophone cantons, and the

rest of them mostly German-speaking cantons,

but all very small.

12. Grassroots-based participatory democracy:

What constitutes the most essential

foundations of Switzerland’s multi-national

governance and coexistence is the grassroots-

based participatory democracy that each of

the 2,700 local communes, spread across the

twenty-six cantons, practices (Interviews with

local officials in Fribourg and Graubunden

on August 20-21, 2012). While local needs

Lessons from the Swiss Experience of Nation-Building: Implications for Multi-National Societies in Conflict — Tatsushi Arai

and traditions differ greatly, these communes

generally decide and act on locally-specific

ways of taxation and budgeting, primary and

pre-school education (including the choice

of language for instruction), the local police,

zoning and building regulations, garbage

disposal, and public utilities of different kinds.

Leadership experience in commune politics

trains aspiring citizens to prepare for greater

leadership roles in cantonal and federal politics

(Fleiner et al 2005).

This last point about local practices of democracy

deserves special attention because spontaneous day-

to-day interactions that facilitate Swiss multi-national

experiences cannot be explained fully in terms of

governance structures and institutional arrangements

alone. In relation to this point, what was especially

noteworthy during the field research was a lesson

learned from rural Romansh-speaking villages in

Graubunden, where multi-lingual local residents live

side by side with a significant number of foreigners

and immigrants from Portugal, the Balkans, and

other countries. When asked to reflect on the unique

attributes of their Romansh-speaking identity, several

of the local interviewees with Romansh heritage, who

work as shopkeepers, restaurant owners, bartenders,

tourist information center staff, and in other capacities,

almost unanimously responded, “I don’t know.” When

asked further to reflect on why local community

members of such diverse linguistic and national

backgrounds can coexist harmoniously – which they

confirmed to be the case – these same interviewees yet

again responded, “I don’t know,” after a much longer

pause. It was as if these questions were so out of place

that the interviewees could not even wrap their minds

around them. To the latter question, however, a staff

member of a tourist information center in the small

town of Samedan, who moved there some twenty

years ago from a German-speaking canton and raised

her child at the town’s Romansh-speaking elementary

school, finally responded after much thinking, “Maybe

if we don’t treat everyone in a friendly manner, we

cannot maintain a good life here” (Interview in

Samedan, Graubunden on August 18, 2012).

From an anthropological point of view, these

interviewees’ silence and their inability to respond

are as revealing and informative as their expressed

answers. To them, their daily experiences of living

together with other community members of diverse

national and linguistic backgrounds is so natural that

they do not even think consciously of the reasons

for their habitual way of living together. Nor do they

think of distinct attributes of their Romansh-speaking

identity or any other linguistic identity for that matter.

In other words, as far as these rural communities of

Graubunden are concerned, their culture of multi-

national coexistence appears to be so deep-rooted in

their collective mindset that it is hardly noticeable in

their self-awareness.

While these preliminary observations derived

from limited evidence are neither conclusive nor

generalizable to other areas of Switzerland that

previously experienced tensions over politicized

linguistic-national differences, these observations

are nevertheless evocative and useful as a starting

point of further inquiry into less visible aspects of

Swiss society’s multi-national experience. The future

inquiry of interest consists of asking such questions

as: how did Swiss communities of diverse national

and linguistic backgrounds come to internalize the

deeply habitual, routinized ways of managing their

differences and living together?; in what ways does

the evolution of diverse Swiss cultures that facilitate

intercommunal coexistence contribute to the long-

standing institutional practices of democratic,

participatory governance?; how do peace-promoting

cultures and structures reinforce one another to

generate a virtuous cycle of harmony and equity

while preventing a negative cycle of discrimination

and inequity?

26 27

Implications for Policy, Practice, and Future Inquiry

While the transferability of the Swiss model to other

social contexts must be examined cautiously, its

potential as a basis for exploratory inquiry, dialogue

and practitioner training for inter-communal conflict

resolution is significant. Illustrative examples of

multi-national countries that can benefit from a deep

understanding of the Swiss experience of nation-

building include Syria, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and

Nepal. Potentially useful questions for each of these

countries are as follows:

• Syria: Might it be possible to envision a multi-

national coalition government led jointly by

Alawite, Sunni, Christian, and other historical

minorities, with the head of the executive branch

selected on a rotating basis? Alternatively or

additionally, might it be possible to consider

a bicameral Syrian parliament that consists

of one chamber made up of representatives

of the existing (or carefully reorganized)

administrative districts, and the other chamber

comprised of representatives of diverse identity

groups organized into non-sectarian political

parties?

• Myanmar: Might this multi-national, multi-

religious society – comprised of the seven

administrative divisions of the Burman-

majority mainland and the additional seven

peripheral states inhabited mainly by diverse

ethnic minorities – be able to realize greater

development potential and social harmony

when the central government enables these

units to assume greater autonomy under

federalism? Might both the seven Burman-

majority divisions and the seven ethnic states

become more effective, complementary, and

sustainable bodies of governance when they

can practice greater economic, political, and

cultural-religious autonomy to serve each of

their constituent ethno-linguistic communities,

by learning lessons from Swiss cantons and

communes?

• Afghanistan: Might the multi-national

society of Afghanistan benefit from an Afghan

adaptation of the federal-cantonal-communal

(national-provincial-village) coordination

aimed at supporting greater autonomy at each

level, while placing a greater emphasis on

meeting the basic human needs of security,

welfare, and identity at the commune-village

level?

• Nepal: Might Nepal, a small landlocked

country surrounded by China and India, be

able to achieve greater security and regional

stability by adopting a policy of neutrality and

defensive defense, while proactively perusing

regional economic cooperation by modelling

on Swiss-EU relations? What lessons can

the increasingly internationalized Nepali

society learn from the relationships between

Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and Austria for the

future of Chinese-Nepali-Indian relations,

especially for Nepal’s effort to build greater

independence, security, and prosperity?

These exploratory questions would undoubtedly

be challenged by strong questions and objections

that stakeholders in each of the conflict-affected

societies under study must raise. Their questions and

objections are justified because each of the conflict-

affected societies is highly unique and ultimately

incomparable to other societies. Their similarities to

Switzerland in some aspects of comparability can

easily be overridden by fundamental differences in

other aspects. Moreover, the Swiss experience that

evolved at the heart of Western Europe may invite

resistance from conflict parties in non-European

contexts because such a comparison arguably implies

European supremacy. Experience suggests, however,

Lessons from the Swiss Experience of Nation-Building: Implications for Multi-National Societies in Conflict — Tatsushi Arai

28

that conflict parties’ resistance to imaginative,

analogical thinking is often attributed in part to

their refusal to compare and reduce their distinct,

unforgettable histories of suffering to somebody

else’s. In other words, part of their resistance may

come from their desire to have their historical

identities fully recognized and honored in their own

right. Under these circumstances, analogies always

fail, except when conflict parties themselves want to

seek inspirations from other societies undergoing war-

to-peace transitions. The Swiss model can therefore

serve as a guide to those who seek it.

References

Fischer, Dietrich. 1982. Invulnerability without Threat: The

Swiss Concept of General Defense. Journal of Peace

Research 19 (3): 205-25.

Fleiner, Thomas, Alexander Music, and Nicole Topperwien.

2005. Swiss Constitutional Law. Hague: Kluwer.

Galtung, Johan. 2004. Transcend and Transform: An

Introduction to Conflict Work. Boulder, Colo.: Paradigm

Publishers.

Ghai, Yash. 1998. The Structure of the State: Federalism

and Autonomy. Chap. in Democracy and Deep-Rooted

Conflict: Options for Negotiators, edited by P. Harris

and B. Reilly. Stockholm: Institute for Democracy and

Electoral Assistance.

http://www.idea.int/publications/democracy_and_deep_

rooted_conflict/upload/ddrc_full_en.pdf

Haller, Walter. 2009. The Swiss Constitution in a Comparative

Context. Zurich: Dike.

Geiser, Urs. 2015. Swiss Stop Short of Boosting Border

Controls. Swissinfo.ch. November 18.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/security-and-asylum_swiss-

stop-short-of-boosting-border-controls/41786816

(Accessed January 24, 2016).

Upreti, Bishnu Raj, Nicole Topperwien, and Markus

Heiniger. 2009. Peace Process and Federalism in Nepal:

Experiences, Reflections and Learning. Kathmandu,

Nepal: Swiss National Center of Competence in Research

(NCCR) North-South.

Watts, Ronald L. 2008. Comparing Federal Systems.

Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.

Wennmann, Achim. 2011. The Political Economy of

Peacemaking. London: Routledge.

World Politics Review. 2015. Switzerland Works with EU to

Contain Refugee Crisis. World Politics Review. November 23.

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/17287/

switzerland-works-with-eu-to-contain-refugee-crisis

(Accessed January 24, 2016).

Appendix: Basic Facts about Switzerland

Population (2015): 8.1 million

Area: 41,000 sq km (16,000 sq miles) – about one ninth of

Japan

Net migration rate (2015): 4.7 migrants/1,000 population

– For a comparative perspective, the US and Japanese

net immigration rates in 2015 were 3.9 and 0 migrants,

respectively, per 1,000.

Major urban areas (2015): Zurich 1.2 million, Bern (capital)

360,000

Mother languages spoken (2013): German 64%, French 23%,

Italian 8%, Romansch 0.5% – all official languages

Religion (2013): Catholic 38%, Protestant 27%, Other

Christian 6%, Muslim 5%, None 21%

Administrative units: Federation comprised of 26 cantons (6

of which are half cantons), subdivided into approximately

2,700 communes

GDP (purchasing power parity, 2014): $473 billion

GDP per capita (2014): $58,000

Labor force by occupation (2010): agriculture 3.4%, industry

23.4%, services 73.2%

Unemployment rate (2014): 3.2%

Population below poverty line (2011): 7.6%

System of governance: Legislation by the bicameral

Federal Assembly comprised of the Council of States (2

representatives from each canton and 1 representative

from each half-canton elected for a four-year term) and

29

the National Council (representatives elected by popular

vote on the basis of proportional representation, with seats

distributed among political parties); the Federal Council,

the cabinet, comprise of 7 members elected from the

Federal Assembly for a four-year term; Federal Council

members rotate in one-year terms to become federal

president.

Major political parties: Christian Democratic Party (CVP),

Free Democratic Party (FDP. The Liberals), Social

Democratic Party (SPS)

Military service (as of 2012): 19-26 years of age for male

compulsory military service. Compulsory service consists

of 260 days in the armed forces. Conscripts receive 18

weeks of mandatory training, followed by seven 3-week

intermittent recalls for training during the next 10 years.

Military expenditure (2014): 0.64% of GDP

Source: CIA World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/

publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sz.html

Lessons from the Swiss Experience of Nation-Building: Implications for Multi-National Societies in Conflict — Tatsushi Arai