Do governments delay the implementation of parliamentary requests? Examining time variation in implementing legislative requests in Switzerland

This paper investigates time variations in the implementation of legislative requests by the Swiss government. Combining the literature on executive–legislative relations with findings from implementation research, we focus on the procedural level and argue that implementation delays can occur because the government does not want to, cannot or should not implement faster. We test these mechanisms using a unique database, which enables us to analyse a systematic collection of all legislative requests that have been approved between the parliament’s 2003 winter session and its 2018 spring session. Our results show that the considerable variation in the time needed for the legislative mandates’ implementation is mostly related to the Swiss government’s inability to transpose faster, i.e. to factors like highly busy administrative offices or complex and controversial issues. In contrast, there is no support for the ideas that the government “shall not” or “does not want to” transpose faster.

SIPPING COFFEE WITH MY "CALAMITY": THE DANGER ACQUIRE WHEN A HISTORIOGRAPHER PREPARE A SOCIAL INTERFERENCE IN THE THE TIME BEING

In 2015, the Swiss government entrusted a commission of specialists to research its former coercive government assistance measures. Prior to 1982, endless youngsters, youngsters and grown-ups the same were affected by them. From the very beginning, this commission drew those influenced into their exploration—with ambiguous outcomes, both for individuals themselves and for the examination project. Analysis of this undertaking in the media brought about an eager response. A conversation over some espresso did not bring the gatherings included any more like a typical agreement, yet in any event it empowered the historiographer to survey the effect of his intercession. In a most ideal situation, the aftereffect of such discussion scan empower de-heightening.

Drinking Coffee with My “Victims”: The Risks Incurred When a Historian Makes a Public Intervention in the Present

In 2016, the Swiss government tasked a commission of experts to investigate its former coercive welfare measures. Before 1981, innumerable children, young people and adults alike were affected by them. From the very start, this commission drew those affected into their research—with ambiguous consequences, both for the people themselves and for the research project. Criticism of this undertaking in the media resulted in a vehement reaction. A discussion over a cup of coffee did not bring the parties involved any closer to a common understanding, but at least it enabled the historian to assess the impact of his intervention. In a best-case scenario, the result of such discussions can enable de-escalation.

The TV addresses of the Swiss government before popular votes

This paper analyzes an important genre in the public debates before popular votes in Switzerland: the TV addresses in which the Swiss government presents its standpoint and main arguments for or against the proposal put to the vote. The paper investigates a series of addresses in order to characterize the argumentation in them. The question is whether the addresses show similarities and, if there are any, what their pragmatic effects on the argumentation might be. The addresses are studied with concepts and methods from linguistics and argumentation theory: with regard to the role of the non-verbal modes, the composition, the relation between argumentation and other practices, the argumentative macro- and micro-structure, and personal references. In all these aspects, recurrent features can be identified. Many of these features can be understood as highly functional for the Swiss political system with its far-reaching direct democratic rights. They effectuate an argumentation that is rather informative than confrontational.

Message About the Chibok Girls

(12 MAY 2014) [Trans.: Abdulbasit Kassim] Available at: http://jihadology.net/2014/05/12/new-video-message-from-boko-%e1%b8%a5arams-jamaat-ahl-al-sunnah-li-dawah-wa-l-jihad-shaykh-abu-bakr-shekau-message-about-the-girls/ On 14 April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from the Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State. Fifty-seven of the schoolgirls managed to escape soon after their abudction and another girl, Amina Ali Nkeki, escaped on 17 May 2016 after two years in captivity. Negotiations between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram brokered by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss government led to the release of twenty-one girls on 12 October 2016. Another Chibok girl, Maryam Ali Maiyanga, escaped on 5 November 2016 while another batch of eighty-two Chibok girls were released on 6 May 2017 following intense negotiations led by barrister Mustapha Zanna and the intervention of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Swiss government. The Zanna-led negotiation involved the swapping of five Boko Haram prisoners and the payment of an undisclosed amount to Boko Haram...

Defensive Humanitarianism

During World War I, the Swiss state interned nearly 30,000 foreign soldiers who had previously been held in POW camps in Germany, France, Britain, Belgium, Austria, and Russia. The internment camp system that Switzerland implemented arose from the Swiss diplomatic platform of defensive humanitarianism. By offering good offices to the belligerent states of WWI, the Swiss state utilized humanitarian law both to secure Swiss neutrality and to alleviate, to a degree, the immense human suffering of the war. The Swiss government mixed domestic security concerns with international diplomacy and humanitarianism. They elevated a domestic policy platform to the international diplomatic level and succeeded in building enough trust between the party states to create an internment system that reconceptualized the treatment of foreign soldiers from the holding of prisoners to the healing of men.

Still Life, With Lobster

On March 1, 2018, the Swiss government enacted a ban against boiling live lobsters to death. This article explores the significance of that ban: Is it a political statement, a symbolic gesture, or both? In asking those questions, the author seeks to understand what kind of food politics are at play when a country bans a cooking technique. Drawing upon such seemingly disparate works as David Foster Wallace's landmark essay “Consider the Lobster,” the author's own ethnographic fieldwork in an haute cuisine restaurant in Europe, and the teachings of the French existentialist philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, this article argues that regulations over how we kill the animals that will become our food are ripe for reconsideration.

The Helvetic Republic

This chapter focuses on Switzerland and the Helvetic Republic. Until 1798, all of Switzerland was an incredibly complex mosaic of dissimilar pieces. Over a millennium, there had grown up an indefinite number of small communities—from cities like Zurich to remote clusters of pastoral families in Alpine valleys—which no longer belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, and did not yet belong politically to anything else. There was no Swiss state, Swiss citizenship, Swiss law, or even Swiss government. However, nowhere else was the impact of certain principles of the Revolution more apparent and more lasting—especially of the principles of legal equality and of the unity and indivisibility of the Republic. The idea of a Swiss people became a reality under the Helvetic Republic, whose main features were confirmed in the Napoleonic Act of Mediation of 1803, and reconfirmed at the Congress of Vienna.

Migration controls will complicate Swiss-EU relations

Subject Switzerland's popular vote on migration controls. Significance The already-difficult relationship between Switzerland and the EU has been complicated by the popular vote on migration controls for EU citizens in February 2014. Its implementation will violate the EU's principle of free movement of people, which the EU has refused to renegotiate. Nonetheless, the Swiss government has to find a solution before a three-year deadline expires in February 2017, which will turn the latent conflict with the EU into an acute one. Impacts Firms will face higher bureaucratic obstacles to employing job seekers not already residing in Switzerland. A broadening of the mutual market access between Switzerland and the EU is highly unlikely in the foreseeable future. The prospects for Swiss participation in EU programmes such as Horizon 2020 and Creative Europe remain uncertain.