Real Politics in Switzerland
by Judith Goldsmith
Published in Coevolution Quarterly, Fall 1981 (vol 31, page 41)

Dear CQ:
Robin Clarke's article on Guernsey (Summer '81 CQ) reminded me of some of the observations I made of Switzerland on a recent visit there. Switzerland is also a small, straight, well-run, common sense-based, self-sufficient nation. It's no accident at all that the streets of Zurich are paved with invested gold, or that the Swiss franc is a monetary standard, or that a Swiss bank account is a favored $$$ stash.

The Swiss long ago moved into an uncompromising area of high mountains, short summer growing season and extremely cold winter temperatures, and learned to make a success of living there. They do it by using every available resource the area provides to its maximum and absolutely without fail. The extent of this was impressed upon me the very first day of my visit. It was the end of summer, and some young men from the community were cutting down the tall autumn grasses from the neighborhood lawns. My host explained that they were collecting all these for the community cattle feed supply. Imagine: the cows of all the individual owners of the community are fed through the winter from a grass / hay supply to which the lawns, fields and empty lots of all must contribute (city dwellers, doctors, lawyers, shoe salesmen), It is recognized that all the other professions depend on the basic dairy industry for an economic base, and collecting feed for the cattle from every possible local source keeps money from going out of the country to buy foreign-grown feed.

The Swiss have made an art of stability: they could continue on in their little corner of the world quite stably for the next few hundred years with no problems. No resource goes to waste. Forests and meadows are held communally and are carefully manicured; dead wood is continually cut out and used. Switzerland has no colonies as far as I know; instead of going out hunting new resources when they had made use of all the land could offer for cattle-raising, etc., they started skilled artisanry (watch-making and the like). The Swiss have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, little violent crime, strong trade guilds, and citizens who still vote by raising their hands in the public square. They have not been in a war since 1798, when they were invaded during the French revolution. Yes, this is the way to run a civilization.


On the other hand

On the other hand, there is almost no chance for change, no margin for madness. You graduate from school in a definite profession, join a trade guild, hang out with other doctors or lawyers or whatever, and toe the line: show up for work every day, on time, without fail, and don't make waves. When my American dentist friend and his wife got caught at the end of their vacation in the outbreak of the Turkish-Greek conflict, they drove all night to get back to Switzerland in time for him not to be late for work, because "you just don't do that in Switzerland." Drinking is a national pastime and obsession. The Swiss drink at lunch, at breaks, after work, etc. They often go to work quite sloshed.

The cost of stability is a rigidly structured social system. There are a finite number of professional slots; entrepreneurship is discouraged and the Swiss hesitate to try anything too new. (Some other young people who decided to try to open a crepe restaurant in my friends' town were decidedly nervous about whether such an "avant garde" idea would go over.) My friends wanted to fix up the plumbing and wiring in the house they bought in the good old American "do it yourself" tradition; they discovered there was no retail outlet for the supplies they needed. Everyone simply hires a professional to do the job completely and right. Second professions or hobbies that develop into businesses are unheard of.

Switzerland is also a closed society. Only enough new people are allowed in to the country to fill jobs not taken by native Swiss. Foreigners absolutely must have a guaranteed job before they are allowed to take up residence; members of the city or village where you want to live vote whether you will be allowed to stay in their community. If my friends visit another city in Switzerland, they must notify the local police. (This probably also helps protect them from house break-ins though.)

Personally I think it is good to have places like Switerland, whatever their seemingly inherent drawbacks, where those people can go who do want to live in the ultimate stable economy. Evidently the older Swiss think their stability is worth its cost; they have made a conscious choice to continue to have things as they are. On the other hand, the Swiss young people I met were disdainful of the set-up, disgusted with the staidness and stagnancy, and delighted by the innovations of American culture.

Judith Goldsmith
Berkeley, California