Switzerland’s 7 Presidents, a good model of governance

Switzerland doesn’t have a President or Prime Minister acting as a Head of State nor a Head of Government. The country is managed by a seven-members Council which is considered as a collective Head of State. One member of the council is considered the President of the Confederation but he is just a primus inter pares, which means “first among equals” 7 members of the Federal Council. He/she acts in that role for 1 year, and the duty of presidency rotates among the members in order of seniority, then the previous year’s Vice President becomes President. The President of the Confederation is not considered the head of State; rather the entire Federal Council is considered a collective Head of State.

 The President main role is to assume special representational duties. He has no powers above the other Councilors and continues to head his or her department. For not having any single Head of State, the country also carries out no state visits. When traveling abroad, the President does so only as an ordinary Minister of a government Department. Visiting heads of state are received by the seven members of the Federal Council together, rather than by the President of the Confederation. Treaties are signed on behalf of the full Council, with all Federal Council members signing letters of credence and other documents of the kind.

Like Namibia, Switzerland is a multicultural country with 4 different ethnics groups: 65% of the population is German; 18% French; 10% Italian; 1% was Romansh; and 6% comprises of various other groups. Equally, about 50% of the Namibian population belongs to the Awambo tribe and 9% to the Kavango tribe; Herero 7%; Damara 7%; Nama 5%; Caprivian 4%; Bushmen 3%; Baster 2% and Tswana 0.5%. 

Given that democracy is unfair against the minority, and that most of our political parties are founded upon ethnic representation principles. The majority group easily wins all democratic elections, but mighty Switzerland adopted a federal model that in fact gives enough power to each ethnic group to manage their local affairs, speak and administrate in their language, and at the top executive level the collective nature of the federal council works well to reinforce the sense of community of destiny. 

This model has got progressive advantages, first, it embraces ethnic identity thus integrates and minimizes ethnic conflicts in the context a multi-ethnic country. Secondly, the multi heads of state, are all equal in opinion and power, making it difficult to take impulsive decision, and minimize the risk of dictatorship. Thirdly, it minimizes corruption of leadership in the sense that any top level decision could not be taken without sound review by the members of the council. Fourthly, as all seven members have to sign top level decisions to be valid, external pressure on one or two members of the council will not be enough to move a decision ahead. Finally, leadership based on showmanship and cult of personality is severely limited, and the leaders are more focused on delivering results in their departments.

In The Prince, Machiavelli said, the weakest form of government for any nation is dictatorship or one-powerful-man at top, because it’s easy to conquer such nations. Once you succeed to cut the head, the whole falls into panic and concedes defeat. On the other hand, the most resilient nations are those with multiple, strong, and independent local princes. Even after the central government of such nations would fall, any conqueror would have to battle all individual princes to win over the country.

In 1976, in China, after Mao died, the Chinese Communist Party vowed never to let a single person, whatever his position or charisma, to have so much power to lead to the horrific deeds of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Deng Xiaoping, Mao’s successor, stripped himself of all the powers he has got as president, and transferred them to what was called the Eight Elders, which ultimately would accomplish the most transformational endeavor in human history which lifted more than 800 million people out of abject poverty in China, and reached a level of development that Europe succeeded to accomplish only over 400 years.  For Chinese, the state’s affairs are not a matter of opinion, intuition, impulse, emotion, religion, personal preferences or lineage, but based on the scientific approach of ”seek truth from facts” in political and economic affairs, a good philosophy which Namibians in general and politicians should subscribe to.

These model would give enough power to each ethnic groups to be equally represented on the table, to directly manage their local affairs, speak and administrate in their language as this would further uphold, promote, protect and preserve each culture and their traditional principles. I herewith make a challenging proposition, to learn, and constructively debate to adopt this model.

Matheus Pendapala Taapopi 

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