Suchergebnisse

A study of the effect of foreign immigration on cultural tensions in Switzerland & upon the country's foreign relations. It refers particularly to the postwar immigration of foreign labor. The N of aliens with labor permits reached a peak of 720,901 in 1964 (474,340 Italians, 82,320 Spaniards, 78,550 Germans). It was at first assumed that the need for foreign labor would be temporary; but time proved this assumption wrong. The Swiss began to feel alarmed by their dependence on aliens, & the dominance of Italians created fears about changes in the delicate linguistic & religious balance of their country. The announcement of a liberal immigration agreement between Switzerland & Italy in 1964 created an anti-alien agitation to which the Swiss gov yielded. Swiss firms were made to reduce the N of employed aliens, & the total/sum N of aliens with labor permits declined to 648,548 in 1966 (432,776 Italians). The claim that the linguistic & religious balance would be upset is examined; it is found to be more justified for religion than for language. But it is concluded that 'the long-run effects of the postwar influx of foreigners will be less disturbing to the ethnic & cultural equilibrium of Switzerland than has been widely feared.' The restrictions have proved effective & the permanently resident aliens can be assimilated. The relations with Italy have returned to normal. But the anti-alien agitation shows how even an old-established cultural pluralism can be easily upset. I. Langnas.

Abstract. The co-occurrence of meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological droughts (multivariate compound droughts) in Switzerland during growing season is problematic due to limitations in water abstractions from rivers during low-flow periods, while at the same time the need for irrigation is high. We analyse compound droughts for 52 catchments in Switzerland during the extended summer season (May–October) using the transient climate and hydrological scenarios for Switzerland (CH2018 and Hydro-CH2018) for both a scenario with mitigation (representative concentration pathway 2.6 (RCP2.6), 8 model chains) and a scenario without mitigation (RCP8.5, 20 model chains). In the RCP8.5 scenario the number of compound drought days is projected to significantly increase by mid-century across all greater regions of Switzerland. The increased frequency is mainly a result of more frequent events (significant) rather than longer event durations (non-significant). Models generally agree on the sign of change. By 2085, compound drought events are projected to occur in median once per catchment per extended summer season north of the Alps and every 1–2 years south of the Alps. Further, the increases in compound drought days mainly occur between May–October, leading to a shift in the main agricultural production season and a more pronounced seasonality with the highest occurrence probabilities between mid-July and the beginning of October. Coupled to the increase in days and events, significantly more catchments are projected to be affected by compound droughts at the same time. In the RCP2.6 (mitigation) scenario, the increase in the number of compound drought days and events is not significant by the end of the 21st century. In comparison with RCP8.5, the number of compound drought days is reduced by 50 %–55 % north of the Alps and by up to 75 % south of the Alps by the end of the century. This emphasizes the need for coordinated adaptation in combination with mitigation measures taken at an early stage.

Part of the project Why Centralization and Decentralization in Federations?, this article studies dynamic de/centralization in Switzerland since 1848 and seeks to account for the patterns observed. It shows that, overall, there has been a wide-ranging process of legislative centralization, whereas the cantons have retained considerable administrative and, especially, fiscal autonomy. The principal instrument of dynamic centralization has been constitutional change, followed by the enactment of framework legislation by the federal government. The process has unfolded primarily through frequent steps of a small magnitude and occurred throughout the 160-year life of the federation. Modernization, market integration, changing patterns of collective identification, and expectations concerning the role of government appear to have played a particularly important causal role. The multilingual and bi-confessional nature of the country has not presented a major obstacle to this centralization dynamic, particularly since World War II, with the French-speaking minority becoming increasingly pro-centralization.

Explores the political class in Switzerland, particularly in light of its lack of a professional parliament & the combination of direct democracy, federalism, consociationalism, & the militia ideal in Swiss politics. The history of the militia principle & professionalization in political institutions is recounted. The institutional environment necessary for political class development & an evaluation of the Swiss political class are provided, with commentary on the public perception of the militia system & the Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung). The potential of institutional reform & appropriateness of the "political class" label to Switzerland are appraised. 3 Tables, 33 References. L. Collins Leigh

In comparing Switzerland & Japan with respect to intergovernmental relations, differences are more obvious than similarities. Switzerland is a strongly federalist country. In contrast, Japan was clearly centralist in the past, & despite continuing decentralization reforms, it is usually still considered to be so today. The influence of the lower levels of government on the national legislative process remains comparatively low in Japan. Its centralized political structure seems to fit Japan's homogeneous culture, while on the other hand Swiss federalism has proven to be apt for the integration of minorities & for respect of cultural diversity. In spite of obvious basic differences, intergovernmental relations in these two countries face similar challenges: the concentration of human & economic resources in urban areas, the weakening of subnational parliaments, & financial strain. 6 Tables, 41 References. Adapted from the source document.

This paper is a summary of the major findings of a large research project on the distributional impacts of government policies in Switzerland. First, the budget incidence of the entire public sector, including the social security system, is presented. The results indicate a substantial redistribution from upper-income to lower-income classes. The effect is largely due to public spending rather than to taxation. Second, the distributional impacts of public policy in selected policy areas—transportation, social security, agriculture, and health—are investigated. Redistribution is pro the poor for transportation and health, and pro the rich for agriculture. A mixed picture is found for social security. Within groups of the same marital status or sex, redistribution is pro the poor. Between these groups, it is pro the rich. Third, the distributional impacts of changes in selected macroeconomic variables are analyzed. The major conclusion is that macroeconomic growth policies, if successful, lead to a reduced equality of income distribution.

The aim of this study is to determine the role of popular initiative in the political system of Switzerland. The term 'popular', or 'citizens' initiatives' refers to the procedures that allow citizens to bring new issues to the political agenda through collective action, that is, through collecting a certain number of signatures in support of a policy proposal. Citizens' initiative in Switzerland allows for any group outside parliament to put a proposal on the table. The proposal has to suggest a constitutional amendment. Changes to laws or any other government regulations cannot be the subject of a popular initiative at national level in Switzerland. Of the 174 initiatives that have made it to the polls, only 18 (10 per cent) had been approved prior to 2010, all the others were rejected. Initiatives are launched for numerous reasons. The agenda-setting effect is relevant for all initiatives. Parties and interest groups also launch initiatives for more strategic reasons. In Switzerland the institutions of direct democracy, including the popular initiative on constitutional amendments, play a most prominent role, both in terms of frequency and in terms of impact, in a political system shaped by consensus politics and a rather stable party system. ; Celem niniejszego artykułu było ustalenie roli, jaką pełni inicjatywa ludowa w systemie politycznym Szwajcarii. Inicjatywę ludową (obywatelską) możemy zdefiniować jako procedurę, która umożliwia obywatelom przedstawienie swoich propozycji ustawodawczych (konstytucyjnych) poprzez zgromadzenie wymaganej liczby podpisów pod wnioskiem. Inicjatywa ludowa w Szwajcarii pozwala grupom obywateli złożyć propozycje w zakresie zmiany konstytucji. Należy podkreślić, iż na poziomie federacji nie funkcjonuje inicjatywa w zakresie ustawodawstwa zwykłego. Spośród 174 inicjatyw ludowych, które zostały poddane pod głosowanie w referendum, do roku 2010 jedynie 18 (10%) zyskało aprobatę większości. Pozostałe wnioski odrzucono. Inicjatywy są zgłaszane z różnorodnych powodów. Elementem wspólnym jest efekt tworzenia programu politycznego. Partie polityczne oraz grupy interesu podejmują inicjatywy także z powodów strategicznych. W Szwajcarii instytucje demokracji bezpośredniej (w tym inicjatywa ludowa) odgrywają istotną rolę, zarówno w zakresie częstotliwości stosowania, jak i pod względem wywieranego wpływu, w systemie politycznym ukształtowanym przez politykę porozumienia i dość stabilny system partyjny.

Alternative Dispute Resolution plays a crucial role in the justice system of Switzerland. With the unified Swiss Code of Civil Procedure, it is required that each litigation session shall be preceded by an attempt at conciliation before a conciliation authority. However, there has been little research on conciliation authorities and the public's perception of the authorities. This paper looks at public confidence in conciliation authorities and provides results of a survey conducted with more than 3,400 participants. This study found that public confidence in Swiss conciliation authorities is generally high, exceeds the ratings for confidence in cantonal governments and parliaments, but is lower than confidence in courts.Since the institutional models of the conciliation authorities (meaning the organization of the authorities and the selection of the conciliators) differ widely between the 26 Swiss cantons, the influence of the institutional models on public confidence is analyzed. Contrary to assumptions based on New Institutional-ism approaches, this study reports that the institutional models do not impact public confidence. Also, the relationship between a participation in an election of justices of the peace or conciliators and public confidence in these authorities is found to be at most very limited (and negative). Similar to common findings on courts, the results show that general contacts with conciliation authorities decrease public confidence in these institutions whereas a positive experience with a conciliation authority leads to more confidence.The Study was completed as part of the research project 'Basic Research into Court Management in Switzerland', supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Christof Schwenkel is a PhD student at the University of Lucerne and a research associate and project manager at Interface Policy Studies. A first version of this article was presented at the 2013 European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) Annual Conference in Edinburgh.

International audience ; The agrophotovoltaics innovative technology (APV) is a staged culture that combines photovoltaic power generation and agricultural production on the same land. The coexistence of solar panels and crops implies a sharing system of sunshine between these two types of production. It opens new horizons by making drylands cultivable while producing clean energy for local populations. APV lies at the heart of a global energy transformation, increasing world energy demand, negative global warming effects, and global water scarcity, and offers a promising investment to farmers and new opportunities for ecologically sustainable livelihoods. As a renewable energy investment, it meets the sustainability demand by reducing climate concerns but it also opens the door to significant socioeconomic benefits. However, the final outcome of the investment depends on government policies, environmental conditions, technical progress and what materials are used in solar power systems. This paper answers three questions: Why is the agrophotovoltaics an important technology today? What are the advantages and disadvantages of agrophotovoltaics use? And what are the economic risks related to this kind of investments? By analyzing Penthéréaz solar panels power generation example in Switzerland, the research illustrates the success factors to the investment and inherently provides recommendations regarding future investments.

This entry has been realised in the framework of the H2020-MSCA-RISE-2018 project "LoGov - Local Government and the Changing Urban-Rural Interplay". LoGov aims to provide solutions for local governments that address the fundamental challenges resulting from urbanisation. To address this complex issue, 18 partners from 17 countries and six continents share their expertise and knowledge in the realms of public law, political science, and public administration. LoGov identifies, evaluates, compares, and shares innovative practices that cope with the impact of changing urban-rural relations in five major local government areas: (1) local responsibilities and public services, (2) local financial arrangements, (3) structure of local government, (4) intergovernmental relations of local governments, and (5) people's participation in local decision-making. The present entry addresses local responsibilities and public services in Switzerland. The entry forms part of the LoGov Report on Switzerland. To access the full version of the report on Switzerland, other practices regarding local responsibilities and public services and to receive more information about the project, please visit: https://www.logov-rise.eu/. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 823961.

Pol'al conflicts in Switzerland are regulated with a very low degree of violence. The case of Switzerland is taken to test 16 hyp's from the literature about the conditions of non-violent patterns for the resolution of pol'al conflicts. These hyp's include variables like the number of autonomous intermediary groups, the degree of pol'al participation, the degree of congruence in the patterns of conflict resolution between pol & other soc fields, the degree of hegemony of a single subculture, the extent of the input of demands to the pol'al system, & the f of the interactions between the elites of the diff subcultures. For the description of the case of Switzerland a system analysis model is developed, based esp on the works of Gabriel Almond, Karl Deutsch & David Easton. To fill this frame of reference the following 3 decision-making processes were studied by participant observation: (1) decision of the Confederation to aid the cantonal U's financially, (2) decision of the Canton Aargau to found a new U, (3) decision of the Liberal Party about the program for a federal election. Apart from these case studies 4 survey studies were undertaken about the behavior of the citizens on the federal, the cantonal & the communal level. The case of Switzerland is taken not only to test existing hyp's, but also to formulate new hyp's about the conditions for nonviolent patterns of conflict resolution. Finally an attempt is made to link the diff hyp's in a whole system of hyp's including feedback loops. AA.

For a small, landlocked country with a difficult geography and no natural resources to speak of, Switzerland has done remarkably well. Nevertheless, the Alpine republic faced some difficulties during the 1990s, even a crisis: Since the fall of the Iron Curtain its role as a neutral go-between was questioned. And as European integration was moving forward the Swiss found themselves quite isolated. As a result, Switzerland cautiously took steps towards international integration and joined the United Nations in 2002. But the country still abstains from joining the EU, disliking the idea of laws made in Brussels rather than in Bern. Therefore Switzerland found a compromise with the EU by negotiating bilateral agreements, including on security issues. Although Switzerland still prefers to go it alone, the country is looking for a replacement for its diminished political weight by adopting a new role of selected cooperation: providing assistance in the Balkans within the framework of the PfP and ESDP, and joining the Schengen/Dublin-Agreement etc. As a small, neutral country Switzerland traditionally wants to offer itself as a go-between in today's conflicts and tries to balance between keeping a low profile in its own foreign and security policy without losing even more ground and to provide space for "Good Offices". Up to now, the country has been quite successful in doing so.

FIRST, THE BASIC FEATURES OF THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN SWITZERLAND AND THE EEC ARE REPORTED AND ANALYZED. SECONDLY, THE BACKGROUND FOR LONG-TERM TRENDS IS DESCRIBED. A FIVE-VARIABLE MODEL OF SWISS FOREIGN POLICY IS UTILIZED TO FORECAST SWISS FUTURE BEHAVIOR VIS-A-VIS THE EEC: IF THE EEC FINALLY REACHES THE POINT OF POLITICAL UNION, THEN SWITZERLAND WILL NOT HESITATE TO JOIN THIS EFFORT.