Page 22 RAIN Winter/Spring 1991 The 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation will be celebrated in 1991. Here is the first in a RAIN series examining the past and present ofdecentralized, community-level politics in this country. Among industrialized nations today, Switzerland is the most politically decentralized. The national administration is largely subordinate to community government, and popular referenda on National issues are common. Major problems confront the country, but local, direct democracy is better established there than in any other wealthy nation. Within many countries today there are regions and peoples aching for independence. In other nations, too much political power is concentrated too far away from the populace to be responsive to their needs. Switzerland, where those in the national capital are not considered leaders as much as facilitators, offers an administrative model without the problems of unchecked power usually associated with big government. The Swiss are citizens first of their communities, then of their cantons, and then of their nation. Local independence, maintained since the founding of the confederation, has left intact great diversity: four official languages, several major religions and many ethnic distinctions. Jingoistic nationalism has rarely had much force. Switzerland is a pocket ofsmallscale politics left over from an age when most important decisions were made locally. Unfortunately, Swiss history offers no model for converting a modem nation to a confederation. Switzerland's decentralist traditions come from a time before centralized nations. It is a pocket of small scale politics left over from the days of loose empires of small principalities, when most important decisions were made locally. It stands out today only because its political structure emerged seven centuries ago, and has been modified only slowly since then. The confederation stood out at the time of its origin not because regional independence was something new, but because self-rule by commoners was. w JURA LIBRE Town and Cantons in Switzerland have distinctive symbols and traditions. A new canton may even emerge from an old one if some differences are not resolved. Bottom: Trademark from the Aargau. Top: Poster of the successful Jura separatist movement of the 1970's.
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