Swiss Council of States

Federal Assembly of Switzerland German: Ständerat French: Conseil des Etats Italian: Consiglio degli Stati Romansh: Cussegl dals Stadis
Type
Type	upper house
Houses	Council of States National Council
Leadership
Structure
Members	46
Meeting place
Website
www.parliament.ch

Switzerland

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The Council of States of Switzerland (German: Ständerat, French: Conseil des Etats, Italian: Consiglio degli Stati, Romansh: Cussegl dals Stadis) is the smaller chamber of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, and is considered the Assembly's upper house. There are 46 Councillors.

Twenty of the country's cantons send two Councillors each. The smaller cantons of Obwalden, Nidwalden, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Appenzell Innerrhoden send one Councillor each. The latter six have traditionally been considered "half cantons", because of their smaller size in area and in population, but in practice operate as full cantons.

The Councillors serve for four years, and are not bound in their vote to instructions from the Cantonal authorities. Under the Swiss Federal Constitution, the mode of election is left to the cantons, the proviso being that it must be a democratic method; however, all cantons now provide for the councillors to be chosen by popular election. In all Cantons except for Zug and Appenzell Innerrhoden, the Councillors are elected concurrently with the members of the National Council. In the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden the representatives are elected by the physically convened popular assembly (Landsgemeinde). With the exception of the Canton of Jura, where a proportional representation election system is used, the representatives are elected by majority vote.

As of 2008^[update], there are 10 women in the Council of States, representing 22% of its membership.

Working languages

In debates, German (High German) and French are used. Italian and Romansh are not used in debates. Debates are not interpreted, which means all representatives must understand German and French.

List of members

• List of members of the Swiss Council of States
• List of members of the Swiss Council of States (2003-2007)
• List of Presidents of the Swiss Council of States

Seats by party

Population per seat

The Council of States represents the principle of federalism of the Swiss constitutional state: seats are distributed by state (canton), not by population. Consequently, the number of people represented by a single seat in the Council of State varies by a factor of 40, from 15,000 for Appenzell Innerrhoden to 600,000 for Zurich.

Notes: ¹ Population data from Cantons of Switzerland (2001). ² Relative representation compared to Zürich.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Federal Palace of Switzerland

• http://www.parliament.ch/e/homepage.htm