It seems incredible - after the Declaration of Human Rights and the creation of the UN - but the current scenario, also observed by our lucky Switzerland - is unfortunately this. We are forced to note that the political-institutional models adopted to guarantee the rights and protection of individuals and communities are not adequate to the challenges of post-modernity. The modern social contract, inscribed after the French Revolution in the liberal Constitutions of the nineteenth-century national states, made it possible to establish emancipation from the Ancien régime, equality before the law and then universal suffrage.

It's not a little. But the ways in which the general will and the relations between state and citizen have been implemented in the majority of states - in particular in centralized ones - now encounter growing difficulties in guaranteeing political stability and broad democratic legitimacy. If the election of citizens' representatives according to the "one man, one vote" principle and the exercise of the will of the majority are the essence of modern national democracies, in the post-national era of globalization and the affirmation of individual rights , the application of the very notion of citizenship becomes complex and some of the political mechanisms of the modern state appear inadequate.

The explosion of growing social conflict with a high subversive potential and the multiplication of intolerant and violent extremist movements are the clear symptom of this inadequacy of states founded on an all-encompassing role of the state and an inhibited civil society. The main limit of this model of social contract is that it interprets the citizen's renunciation of a part of his freedom in favor of the general will (as advocated by Rousseau) as an almost total delegation of sovereignty to the elected representatives and to the State, which in the philosopher's intentions Geneva should instead have remained strictly within the community, with the people. The citizen de facto abdicates an active and direct participatory role in the management of public affairs.

Added to these weaknesses of a rigid conception of majoritarian and centralist representative democracy is today the destabilizing impact of the fourth industrial revolution based on digital technology which puts the national social contract to the test, creating new dominant powers on a supra-national scale, new inequalities and exclusions of citizens. All this makes it urgent to adopt not only shared supra-national and national rules, but also incisive forms of direct participation by citizens and civil society. In the global era, in which differences and asymmetric structures are the norm and not the exception, politics must be able to count on perfected mechanisms, capable of managing complex systems, in which citizens and civil society play a leading role, rather than being considered negligible quantity. Peaceful and democratic coexistence is at stake.

In a recently published issue, the geopolitical magazine “Limes” asks what the reasons for the “hidden power of Switzerland” are in the current global context. Among the numerous ideas indicated, my contribution underlines the role played by the widespread contractualism that permeates the Swiss political system for the prevention and overcoming of conflicts and therefore for strengthening political legitimacy and social stability, indispensable conditions for shared economic development. I use the word contractualism, since it better explains the nature of Swiss federalism, which is very different from the meaning it has elsewhere.

When we talk about federalism abroad we mean a political system of marked centralisation, while here it is the opposite. In fact, the Swiss Constitution establishes that "the Cantons are sovereign [...] and exercise all rights not delegated to the Confederation". Furthermore, in Switzerland federalism (from the word "foedus", or pact or contract) is not limited to the vertical relationship between the institutional center and peripheral institutions, since the idea of ​​contract permeates the functioning of the system at all levels, horizontally. The historian Jean-Francois Bergier called it a “social federalism”. That is, a systemic approach to social, linguistic-cultural and political problems based on the contract, which favors the prevention of conflicts in a non-homogeneous society composed of great diversity.

This systemic contractualism expresses a political culture that has refined over the centuries starting from the awareness that only arbitration between the parties could safeguard an alliance between linguistically and religiously different partners faced with strong international pressure. Subsequently - during the process of founding the modern federal state and in the following decades - it is the outcome of a coherent political-institutional evolution that tempers statist centralism to progressively leave room for a semi-direct democracy based on broad popular participation through the referendum and the popular constitutional initiative, as well as a Government of agreement between the main political forces of the country. The introduction, in 1919, of the election of the National Council according to the proportional system, also allows parties and minorities to be represented in Parliament based on their share of the electorate.

In the history of modern nation states, the Swiss political system represents a very particular hybrid. It is in fact the fruit of a successful modern graft on a pre-modern stock. For centuries, the Swiss Confederation had a purely contractual nature: founded on a pact, therefore on the principle of consensus between the parties. With the entry into force of the first federal Constitution, on 12 September 1848, the federal pact expired and the legal principle ("the majority imposes its will on the minority") took over from the contractual one in Switzerland too.

Nonetheless, the pre-modern contractual principle still permeates the functioning mechanisms of the modern Confederation today. I list some of them.

  1. In Swiss bicameralism, inspired by the US model, large and small cantons have an identical number of representatives (two) in the Chamber of Cantons, which has the same powers as the Chamber of the People.
  2. Semi-direct democracy (right of referendum and initiative) assigns civil society and citizens a political power of control and opposition towards Parliament and the Government.
  3. The double majority of the People and the Cantons, required for the approval of popular initiatives, gives the vote of the citizens of the small cantons a much greater political weight than that of the large cantons.
  4. The federal and cantonal government model is consociational and collegial and the members decide in principle in a consensual manner. The so-called "Labour Peace" has established permanent concertation between workers since 1937 Partner social issues in the consensual development of collective labor agreements and variable minimum wages.
  5. Professional training is promoted jointly by the public body and companies according to a so-called "dual" model. This socio-economic pact between the State and the private economy establishes a relationship between theory and practice that is valuable for training professionals in step with the ongoing technological revolution.
  6. In the drafting of federal laws, the Conferences of cantonal directors responsible for the various departments play an essential complementary role, so that the regulations adopted respond to the interests of all the Swiss regions.
  7. The Mayor of a Municipality is not the Mayor but the President of the Municipal Assembly, just as the Swiss Mayor is not the President of the Government but the President of the Federal Assembly.

There are those who consider Swiss political culture and contractual federalism to be outdated. Perhaps the opposite is true. Switzerland has developed a culture of mediation that is more relevant today than ever. Arbitration and the social pact between Partner and diverse interests that he has honed respond to the complexity of global and multicultural society. In the solution of the social and political crises linked to globalization, the democratic deficit and the need to strengthen the legitimation of political choices thanks to patient work of mediation and consultation between different subjects are evident.

As for national (and European) centralist political models, their difficulty in coping with an increasingly global politics and economy is clear for all to see. Furthermore, the incontrovertible multicultural configuration of our complex societies requires - to prevent the risk of explosive crises - mechanisms of consultation, integration and broad democratic participation that define the variable geometry rules of a peaceful coexistence between minorities and different majorities. Perhaps, Switzerland's institutional hybrid makes it an interesting laboratory in the search for solutions to the complex problems of the post-national and post-modern era.