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This open access book provides an updated and fully revised 4th edition of this authoritative analysis of Swiss democracy. It particularly explains the institutions of federalism and consensus government through political power sharing. In this new edition, the authors also address several important changes and challenges that have affected Swiss democracy, including the country's relationship with the EU, fiscal equalisation, direct democracy and the legitimacy of national referendums, territorial conflict, as well as the polarisation of party politics.
List of contents
1. Introduction.- 2. Building a Multicultural Society by Political Integration.- 3. Federalism.- 4. Direct Democracy.- 5. Consensus Democracy: The Swiss System of Power-Sharing.- 6. Comparative Perspectives.- 7. Switzerland in Europe and the World.
About the author
Wolf Linder is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former Director of the Institute of Political Science at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He has held professorships in Lausanne and Bern and guest professorships in Geneva and Lucerne. His research has focused on Swiss institutions and politics. His publications include about 150 articles and 15 books. Texts of previous editions of Swiss Democracy have been translated into Polish, Arab, Nepali, Rumanian. On this basis, Linder still works as a lecturer in developing countries, where students as well as politicians are particularly interested in the Swiss experience of decentralisation, federalism and political power sharing
Sean Mueller obtained his PhD in Politics & Government from the University of Kent, UK, in 2013. His thesis dealt with decentralisation within the 26 Swiss cantons. Prior to his being in the UK, he worked for two years as Research Fellow at the Institute of Federalism of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Since 2013, he has been (Senior) Lecturer and Researcher at the Institute of Political Science, University of Berne, Switzerland. He also taught Swiss and Comparative Politics at the Universities of Lausanne (2016, 2017 and again in 2020) and Lucerne (since 2019). He has published extensively on Swiss federalism, direct democracy, and power sharing, and notably co-wrote a new version of the German-language textbook Schweizerische Demokratie with Wolf Linder in 2017.
Summary
This open access book provides an updated and fully revised 4th edition of this authoritative analysis of Swiss democracy. It particularly explains the institutions of federalism and consensus government through political power sharing. In this new edition, the authors also address several important changes and challenges that have affected Swiss democracy, including the country's relationship with the EU, fiscal equalisation, direct democracy and the legitimacy of national referendums, territorial conflict, as well as the polarisation of party politics.
