Collegial governments

Executive power at the national, cantonal and communal levels is in the hands of a group of 5 or 7 people instead of just one as in presidential regimes. This means that there are several thousand individuals exercising executive power functions across the three levels of the state. About 98% of them do so on a part-time basis. And the country has not only never fallen into chaos or anarchy, but it is probably the best organized nation on the planet. The second chapter illustrates and explains, inter alia, how such a result is possible.

Thanks to this second ingredient, the country obtains/has access:

• to an enormous stability and continuity of the political life of the nation. In Switzerland there are never changes of government, nor zig-zags in the political leadership and/or validity of laws.
• to having at all times governments with years of experience in the management of the political agenda and the affairs of the state, and with a very valuable mix of continuity and regular renewal in its composition.
• to the imperative search for consensus, instead of antagonism and confrontation, as a fundamental form of interaction between the actors of political life when formulating laws and making decisions.
• to a great symmetry in the composition of governments and parliaments at the three levels of the state – forming de-facto a broad and permanent majority, and which also represents between 60-80 % of the electorate.
  
  

> third ingredient