SWISS EXECUTIVE

• Swiss executive is unique in some way. It is called collegial executive because seven heads of
department compose the executive and there is one president and vise president who are annually
chosen.
• The swiss executive which is the plural executive. We can call it federal government or federal
council.
• The federal assembly is made up of two chambers: the national council, with 200 seats; and the
council of state with 46 councilors.
• It is collegial body which consist of seven members. All the powers are exercised by these members
collectively because they are all equal to each other. Though every year on a rotation basis they will
choose president and vise president.
• The collegial executive of Switzerland is basically kind of imposed or made keeping in mind the kind
of diverse heterogeneous society that exists in there so there would be a safety net for the minorities
as well.
• Whenever they choose they member of the executive , they chose people of excellence.
• Basically to the term of offices, normally what happens is that when people do there work so consensually,
they are chosen again and again so as a result the minimum term of office a person may spend is ten year
though there term of office is less like for instance the executive term is four years but people kind of
chose them again due to the kind of work they do.
• They are elected basically by the two houses of federal parliament . Each federal councilor will get a
chance to act as a president and as a vise president with one years vice president becoming next years
president of Switzerland and no single leader will be able to dominant because it is collegial executive
meaning they do everything collectively.
• So the representative which are chosen normally, they all represent a major parties and there is provision
for also representation of certain language groups. As a result they are chosen in such a way that they are
supposed to represent the Swiss's social fabric so there is more of a collegial rule and non parties in that
sense because Despite the fact that there are different parties which may send forth there different
candidates but they work collectively in the interest of country.
• In the parliament when they are choosing the members they will not give much importance to the kind of
party they belong to but the kind of experience, ability and work ethic that each councilor has. Even the
councilors basically try to keep themselves away from any kind of political leanings totally.
• The term of office is four years but they cannot be removed just like that. So the federal parliament will be
there but it has no power to remove by the vote of no confidence because it is very stable executive. There is
chance that each councilor may get elect again and again so normally they get to serve ten years at a time.
Others will serve for longer years like 20 or 25.
• The federal council is the highest government office. It is the seven member executive council that constitutes
the federal government of the swiss confederation and serves as the collective head of the state and
government of Switzerland.
• Entire federal council is responsible for leading the federal administration of Switzerland, each councilor heads
one of the seven federal executive departments. All decision are taken collectively and are elected by the two
houses of parliament i.e. house of representative and senate.
• The election basically takes place once in a four years but they are elected again due to there good work.
• The constitution itself provides the kind of work the federal councils will take.
• From among the members of seven the president and vice president are chosen
• As a result a president cannot take the office for two consecutive years
• During that period of time president act as the head of Switzerland and represent country in foreign basis and
does all the functions that a head of department should do like ribbon cutting functions and ceremonial
function
• But he enjoys no extra power or privilege and is kind of co-equal with the seven members and all the decision
are taken collectively and equally responsible all decisions.
• If a member is not satisfies with decision he can raise his voice but when it comes to implementation than
they have to implement the decision collectively
• Limitation on membership is that If his member of federal parliament than you cannot hold the office of
federal government
• They are responsible for their work collectively but are not responsible to the parliament though parliament
supervises their work , parament cannot make provision to remove them as such because they have stable
tenure of 4 years
• The question on them may not arrive as they are very hardworking people and are working for the interest of
the country as a whole and are chosen on the basis of their merit.
• When it comes to choosing the members of the swiss council their are certain kind of tings that should be kept
in mind
• One seat is given to offense speaking cantons. They have taken consideration the minorities and different
kind of population living in Switzerland especially for the French speaking canton ward and Italian speaking
canton also having one seat and two seats for Bern and Zurich, they are their in federal government and there
is four seats that we talk about. They make sure that people related to blood cannot be member at same time
• There is also seat for German speaking and as far as linguistically concern they have one seat for French
speaking one for Italian speaking people and five seats for German speaking people. So that it makes it seven
seats.
• People related to blood or marriage cannot be members at the same time and two councilors cannot be form
the same canton.
• In a meeting there is quorum of four members out of the seven councilors members so the quorum is basically
the least members required to hold a meeting
• There are different departments which are functioning in Switzerland like political department, department of
public economy, railway and pustule department and department of interior, department of justice, department of
finance custom etc. Each of these departments are headed by each councilors basically they come together and
work collectively.
• Though each councilors is holding the portfolio of becoming the head of the particular department. They are also
there to act as the substitute head. This is to prevent any kind of mismanagement or necessity that may occur due
to once absence or illness
• Federal council is basically the highest governing executive authority of the federation. So it exercises executive
powers and administrative powers.
• Certain federal laws that are already constitutionally provided about the functions of swiss executive basically in
accordance with those laws and degrees and according to constitutional provision the swiss federation has to be
run.
• It is basically aided and done by the executives which has its powers. It conducts formulation of the country and
tries to ensure the independence and the neutrality of the country and maintain peace, security and its also
supervises the administration of the federal laws by canton Government which are more like provincial
government
• It also has appointment making powers . Those appointment which are already not made by the federal
parliament or federal courts then the federal government making appointments.
• It also enforces laws and decisions of the federal parliament which is the executive.
• It controls the federal army , whenever the federal parliament is not in session because of some reasons then
the federal troops can be called by the federal government.
• Federal government also rectifies or sign some treaties . It has responsibility to implement federal laws and
even cantonal law and international treaties are implemented by these body.
• Sometime if there is dispute between cantons, then the decision taken by the federal court will be
implemented by these particular body.
• The members of the federal government are chosen by the joint session of the federal parliament and
members of the federal government or council are not member of the federal parliament. Even if the member
of the federal parliament is chosen in federal government then he has to resign the seat from the federal
parliament .
• Despite the fact that there is some kind of demarcation between the executive and legislature in Switzerland,
the federal council i.e. the executive take part in debates in both the houses. They don’t have right to vote but
they kind of influence the agenda of the meeting and are also influential in initiating certain kind of law
making within the federal parliament and they will be drafting bills according to the demands of people and
also have responsibility for enforcing any decision made by the legislature which is normally the work of
executive.
• when there is division of power between executive, legislature and judiciary then the work of legislature is
law making and it is work of executive to implement it so in these case also the federal council or federal
government as the executive implements the law made by the legislature.
• By the approval of federal parliament, the federal council carry outs the financial administration.
• The federal parliament gives the certain kind of powers to the federal government specifically or the if
constitution itself has specified some powers then it can also then it can also make laws in the form of
ordinances.
• Just in form the federal council or executive maybe said to be responsible to the federal parliament but the
federal parliament cannot remove them as they are very stable. In Switzerland party and politics are not plat
so the are in no hurry to remove them.
• If we compare the executive of Switzerland to that of USA, we find that the USA doesn’t have plural
executive. They have singular executive i.e. president and of course he has his cabinet members aiding him
but he is basically suppose to be singular executive in that sense the president is suppose to be head of nation
as well as state in USA.
• Where as in Switzerland, we find a plural executive which is called a collegial executive because the seven
members which are chosen by federal parliament jointly, collectively work, a president or head of the may
be chosen for a year and vise president may be chosen for a year but their tenure cannot be continued for
more than a year and after that they become ordinary member specially the president becomes the ordinary
member in the following term and there is system of rotational presidentship.
• These are the very peculiar features of swiss executive.
Revision work
• The collegial executive is a feature of plural branch of government in Switzerland.
• There are seven members of the federal government who exercise executive powers.
• All seven members take decisions collectively.
• One of its seven members is elected as president and another as vice president.
• In the next year the vice president becomes the president while a new president is elected.
• The president of federation performs all the functions of the head of the state for one year.
• The swiss federal government enjoy a fixed term of four years.
• on an average a swiss federal government tends to serve at least around ten
years in office .
• It is normally said that collective responsibility is not a feature of swiss
executive though they have a close relation with the federal council.
• The swiss executive cannot be voted out of power by swiss parliament.