Students Visit Swiss Parliament in Bern
March 15th, 2010. Posted in Academic News
A Federal Field Trip
Visit to the Swiss Federal Parliament in Bern
By Isabella Sierra and Mariana Velez
When the Comparative Government class visited the Swiss Federal Parliament on February 11, 2010, we learned about the Swiss Government firsthand. We had knowledge of Switzerland because of the notes we had taken in class, but our trip to Bern extended our understanding, allowing us to analyze what the guide was telling us about the Swiss Government.
The guide took us to the entrance hall, to inform us about federalism, which is the division of power between national, cantonal and communal government in Switzerland, explaining how each canton has a lot of federalism. Then she moved on to speak of the Federal Charter of 1291, which was embodied by the three huge stone statues that represented three original cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. On the four corners of the stairwell were four bronze statues that showed the four different languages of Switzerland, German, French, Italian and Romansch. A stained glass dome topped the entrance hall and represented the twenty-two full cantons that existed in 1902, with Jura, the twenty-third canton, on the side. This entrance also included the phrase “unus pro Omnibus , mnes pro Uno” which means “one for all and all for one,” and shows that in spite of cantonal federalism, Switzerland is a unified nation.
In addition, the guide took us into the council of States, which includes 46 representatives, two per canton and they serve a four-year term. Because there are only two per canton, these representatives have more power than their counterparts in the National Council. Each representative votes by hand. In front sit the six chairs divided into three to each side for up to six Federal Councilors, although it is very rare that more than three Federal Councilors are present at one time as they usually only attend a debate when ti pertains to their ministry.
After visiting the Council of State chamber we visited the National Council, which has 200 seats. The number of representatives are chosen based on the population of each canton, and therefore Zurich has the most representatives in this chamber. The votes can be seen on a screen which this provides a clear count of who supports and who opposes to a motion. The 46 chairs in the back of the National Council chamber are for the Council of State when the two chambers meet for the election of the Federal councilors and Federal judges, and in the case of war. At the back of the president’s chair there is a fresco, which represents the landscape around the meadow of Rutil, where the Federal Charter was signed.
The Federal Parliament is an expression of Switzerland’s representative democracy, which is where people vote to choose the representatives to make their laws. However, in addition to representative democracy, Switzerland has direct democracy, which means that the citizens can vote directly on the laws. For example, the success of the Minaret Ban initiative, sprite of the fact that almost all members of the Swiss government opposed it, shows that sometimes Bern’s power is overruled by a direct vote of the citizens of Switzerland.
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