Modern Switzerland celebrates its 175th birthday. In other words, it just doesn’t work. In 1848, the old Confederation became the first democratic republic in Europe that still exists today, but the list of anniversary events planned for 2023 is super short: an illustrated book on parliamentary activities, an open day in various administrative buildings, an art installation on the facade of the Federal Palace.
Our Knorz with its own history is legendary in the true sense of the word. The Confederacy glorifies legendary heroes of the Middle Ages and ignores the personalities to whom we owe our state and its functioning institutions. The focus is not on individual people, but on ideals.
Thanks to such a mentality, the Swiss are less likely to submit to a single leader. However, historical oblivion stands in the way of important insights. Like how cosmopolitan inspired the state is. The basis was formed by the European Enlightenment, American democracy and the French Revolution. The bicameral legislature with the National Council and the Council of States was adopted from the US and the Federal Council was designed on the basis of the Paris Constitution of 1793. And five of the first seven members of the state government had studied abroad, where they internalized the ideas of liberalism.
The fact that years of hard conflicts between liberals and conservatives preceded the establishment of the federal state, which recently even escalated into a civil war, does not belong in our culture of memory either.
However, this is also part of dealing with Swiss history: 1848
the state was far from finished. In fact, for all its progressiveness, it was extremely patriarchal and racist. The new federal constitution guarantees: “All Swiss are equal before the law. There are no subservient relationships in Switzerland, no privileges of place, birth, families or individuals. » Of course, women and Jews were excluded from this equality. It was not until 1856 that the Jews were given the right to vote and be elected at the cantonal and federal level by federal decree, but not in the communities; As is known, women were categorically banned from political life for more than a century.
In the 1860s, the democratic movement criticized the power of people like the Zurich National Council, government councilor, and railway magnate Alfred Escher. The Democrats, in their own words, wanted to “develop the former pseudo-sovereignty into a real and genuine popular sovereignty” and achieved their main success in 1874 with the introduction of the optional legislative referendum. The fact that the citizens’ initiative was introduced another 17 years later was mainly due to the conservatives. In this way they integrated into the state they had long been fighting for.
The history of modern Switzerland is the history of the emancipation of various social groups. The goal of a democracy that actually deserves that name is the participation of all its inhabitants. Which also means that this emancipation story is far from over. Today, our country has a total of 2.2 million foreigners, a quarter of the total population. Of these, 1.1 million are adults, meaning they have lived here for at least five years without having any political rights.
If the organization Operation Libero now announces a popular initiative to introduce a less restrictive naturalization practice, that is in line with contemporary republican and democratic thinking. Such a matter, of course, is much more important than any celebration of the state. It is just a pity that neither the Bundesrat nor anyone in parliament has come up with the idea of celebrating the anniversary year with a good deed.