The magic recipe

Switzerland has achieved an unparalleled level of liberty and prosperity for its people, and this across all regions of the country and its various social classes.

This achievement of immense value is above all the result of incomparable stability and continuity in its rule of law, which has also generated an unparalleled level of fiability among the people of other nations.

At the basis of this stability are two of the ingredients of the magic recipe – namely the extensive political rights of the citizenry (in particular the right to an elective referendum), and the use of the principle of colleges (groups) as a form of government.

The first ingredient contributes to the creation of a superior body of law, while the second does so through the fact that in Switzerland there are never any changes of government.

The third ingredient of the recipe (political and financial autonomy of cantons and communes) also contributes indirectly to this great political continuity. But its main contribution is to ensure an extensive and equitable distribution of resources and political power – which leads to the high socio-economic cohesion that exists in the country.

In addition to the direct effects generated by each of the three ingredients, the respective contributions are also augmented by the accumulation of a large number of second- and third-order sub-effects that derive from the cross- and retroactive impacts that exist among these three ingredients.

Finally, each of the ingredients is at the basis of several distinctive aspects of Switzerland, and of the very peculiar (and civilized) way in which political life functions in the country. All these aspects (see bullet-points) are of great importance in themselves, but in reality they are merely by-products of the existence and use of the ingredients.