Switzerland

Abstract

The republic of Switzerland, formerly a league of semi-independent states, or ‘Staatenbund,’ has become a united confederacy, or ‘Bnndesstaat,’ since the year 1848. The present constitution, product of a short civil war, bears date September 12, 1848. It vests the supreme legislative and executive authority in a parliament of two chambers, a ‘Ständerath,’ or State Council, and a ‘Nationalrath,’ or National Council. The first is composed of forty-four members, chosen by the twenty-two cantons of the Confederation, two for each canton. The ‘Nationalratli ’ consists of 128 representatives of the Swiss people, chosen in direct election, at the rate of one deputy for every 20,000 souls. Thus, on the basis of the general census of 1860—in force till the next census of 1870—the cantons are represented as follows in the National Council:—