Switzerland

Abstract

Abstract Contrary to widespread assumptions, Switzerland has not always been as peaceful, prosperous, and politically inclusive as it appears today. This chapter analyses how the Swiss polity achieved the political integration of a society that consisted of peoples speaking different languages, practising different religions, and possessing different cultural origins. Achieving national unity in 1848 was accompanied by violence and conflict between the constituent cantons. At the intersection of three main European cultures (French, German, Italian) and torn between Catholicism and Protestantism, the path to societal integration was a long and troublesome one. Proportionality and power-sharing were critical elements for success. This chapter discusses their evolution and explains their effects on political integration. While each institutional change came with integration benefits for specific groups, none of them was achieved without a struggle that, in some cases, lasted for decades. We conclude with the question of what significance Switzerland, as a ‘paradigmatic case of political integration’, may have for other socially fragmented societies.