System polityczny Szwajcarii, czyli przypadek jedyny w swoim rodzaju

Abstract

POLITICAL SYSTEM OF SWITZERLAND OR ONE OF A KIND CASE Switzerland has a unique political system, because of its institutional curiosities and unique democratic procedures. It seems that everyone should be surprised by the same state construction that dialectically combines confederation with federation. The Swiss political system represents a rare model of assembly government, known also as parliamentary-committee system. Its main trait is the lack of power division as a foundation of democratic order. Bicameral parliament – the Federal Assembly, composed of the National Council as representation of people and the Council of States representing the cantons acts as supreme authority and appoints all remaining federal institutions. The mode of election of the National Council is based on strict proportional representation without electoral thresholds and with maximal openness of the whole electoral process. The Federal Council that is popularly considered as government is executive institution and always has seven members. The Swiss governments acts as a collective body without prime minister. One of the members of the Federal Council serves as president. He has only formal procedural duties and has no political prerogatives. And, what is important, contrary to the name of his office, the president is not head of federation, because this role falls to the entire Federal Council. Four strongest political parties of country are represented in the government, and in a result of this, the permanent cooperation of the Swiss system makes a unique consensus democracy.