A collegiate group of seven Federal Councillors: State government and heads of department

The Swiss system of government has hardly changed since 1848; the principles of collegiality and of primus inter pares apply to this day. Federal councillors have a dual function. They are members of the government and therefore jointly responsible for governing. But they also head a department and represent its interests in the governing college, the Federal Council.

The number of federal councillors and departments has always remained the same. What has changed over the years are the significance and responsibilities of the departments.

The federal councillors are elected to the Federal Council and not as the heads of specific departments. The federal councillors decide among themselves who is to be allocated which department after they have been elected.

Term of office and resignation

On average, federal councillors serve for 10 years. The longest serving federal councillor was Carl Schenk, who spent 32 years in office in the 19th century. Another long-serving member was Guiseppe Motta, who served for 28 years, through both World Wars. In the more recent past, the 15 years spent in office by Kurt Furgler, Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, Kaspar Villiger and Moritz Leuenberger are worthy of mention. There is no limit on the term of office and no procedure for a vote of no confidence. Serving federal councillors normally make their own decision on when to stand down. Now and then, however, their hand is forced by their party or by parliament. It is very rare for serving federal councillors who stand again for office not to be re-elected. Since 1848, this has happened four times. (Ulrich Ochsenbein 1854, Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel 1872, Ruth Metzler 2003, Christoph Blocher 2007).

Parties in the Federal Council since 1848

The Radicals were the clear winners in the first ever elections to parliament. They won the first elections to the Federal Council as well. But Switzerland experienced a gradual conversion to consociational democracy, binding the various political forces into the government.
In 1891, a member of the Catholic Conservatives was elected to the government for the first time, followed by a second member in 1919. From 1917-1919, a Liberal held a seat in the Federal Council. In 1929, the Federal Assembly elected a member of the Farmers, Traders and Independents Party (now the Swiss People's Party, SVP) to the Federal Council. During World War II, in 1943, Social Democrats also joined the government.

In 1959, the four parties (FDP, CVP, SP and SVP) agreed to form a government with two Radicals, two Christian Democrats, two Social Democrats and one member of the People's Party (an arrangement known as the ‘magic formula’ 2:2:2:1). This ratio remained unchanged for 44 years. In 2003, the SVP gained a further seat at the expense of the CVP. Since then, the formula has been: 2 SP, 2 FDP, 2 SVP, 1 Die Mitte (new party resulting from the merger of the BDP and CVP).