The Culture and History of Switzerland - Assignment Example

The main principle that characterizes the country’s political system is that the citizens have the highest political authority in the states of Swiss. They have the leverage of conveying their opinion at the levels such as communal, cantonal, and federal. Moreover, they can not only vote on different issues but also elect representatives of the Federal Assembly (Swiss Community, 2015). Response to question 3 The geopolitics and geography of the Swiss sustained and allowed a tension-laden but polycentricity that was effective.

The cantons stubbornly, on autonomy, canalized the attempts, as well as, state-building into a league mode of association instead of centralizing the unitary state model. The ultimate sovereignty neither depends on the citizen nor in some of the central universal principle though it will depend on the autonomous communities. This can be explained by the difference of in the democratic process of this country in comparison to other democracies. It has a direct democracy where the citizens influence government activities directly through either referenda or initiatives.

In the federalism, the constitutional powers are citizen centered as well as the cantons. Moreover, they have consociational democracy where the cantonal majority rules. Cantons that are small have equal weight to those that are big (Swiss Community, 2015). Response to question 4 In my opinion, the culture and color character of the Zurich, Geneva, and Basel relatively differ. This can be attributed to the fact that the culture of the citizens is firmly anchored by the cantons. These cities are important facets of cultural identity as they contribute to the cultural and social substance towards the maintenance of the nation that is polycentric.