The Long Game — Switzerland: The Impossible Example. Thursday’s Edition

Why Some Governments Endure. Series 20 #4

On August 1, 1291, representatives from three mountain communities, Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, signed a charter in the Rütli meadow above Lake Lucerne. It was a mutual defense agreement between three small territories that shared a mountain pass and a common problem: the Habsburg dynasty wanted them. The three communities decided they would resist together rather than fall separately. That decision led to the formation of the Swiss Confederation, which still exists today.

The fact that Switzerland still exists is remarkable, given that it should not have existed in the first place. The country has four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Its population has distinct cultural identities depending on the region. German-speaking Swiss and French-speaking Swiss organize their social lives, their relationship to authority, and their expectations of government differently. By every conventional measure of what holds a nation together, common language, common ethnicity, and a common culture, Switzerland does not qualify. Yet it has held together for 734 years.

The structure explains part of it. Switzerland divided governing power across 26 cantons, each with its own constitution, parliament, courts, and police. The federal government in Bern handles defense, foreign policy, and currency. Everything else stays with the cantons. A German-speaking canton in the east and a French-speaking canton in the west operate under the same federal umbrella but govern themselves according to their own cultural traditions. No single canton can dominate the others, and the federal government cannot override cantonal authority on local matters. The structure distributes power so thoroughly that no language group, region, or political faction can usurp power.

Switzerland also built direct democracy into its federal structure; citizens can force a national vote on any law passed by parliament. This means the population can challenge any law directly. A government that gives its population that power rarely loses support and willingness to defend it.

From a cultural perspective, what holds Switzerland together is not a common culture typical of most nations but several different cultures that have a core belief in local autonomy, resistance to centralized authority, and the right to govern themselves according to their own traditions. This is similar to the Holy See, where cultures and languages from around the world share a common belief in Catholicism.

Schwartz’s values framework identifies security and self-direction as motivators that coexist across cultures when institutions protect both simultaneously. Switzerland’s federal structure does exactly that: it protects each canton’s security by binding them into a common defense, while protecting each canton’s self-direction by leaving local government in local hands.

Neutrality reinforced this. Switzerland declared permanent neutrality in 1815, confirmed at the Congress of Vienna. Every European war since then has passed around it. While neighboring countries spent the 19th and 20th centuries fighting, occupying, and rebuilding, Switzerland was stable. Stability attracted banking, which attracted wealth, which gave the population a material stake in the system. A population that prospers under a government defends that government, not out of sentiment but out of rational self-interest.

Common language and common ethnicity are not what hold governments together. Common values are. Switzerland is proof.

---

Sidebar: Switzerland — A Timeline

• 1291: Federal Charter signed at Rütli — Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden form the original confederation

• 1315: Battle of Morgarten — Swiss forces defeat the Habsburgs, confirming the confederation’s viability

• 1499: Swiss Confederation gains de facto independence from the Holy Roman Empire

• 1648: Peace of Westphalia formally recognizes Swiss independence

• 1798: Napoleon invades, imposes the Helvetic Republic — Swiss resist and restore the confederation by 1803

• 1815: Congress of Vienna confirms Swiss neutrality — permanent and still in force today

• 1848: Federal constitution adopted — modern Switzerland established with bicameral parliament

• 1971: Women granted the right to vote at federal level

• 2002: Switzerland joins the United Nations — the last European nation to do so

• Today: 26 cantons, 4 official languages, 8.7 million people, a permanent neutral state

If you enjoyed this article, help support my work by becoming a paid subscriber or “buying me a coffee.”