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