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Concept
Concordance system
Summary
Concordance democracy is a type of governing / ruling a country that aims to involve as many different groups as possible (parties, associations, minorities, social groups) in the political process and to make decisions by reaching a consensus. In this respect, concordance democracy is a form of consensus democracy in which majority rule as a decision-making mechanism does not play a central role in the political system. The counter-model to concordance democracy is called competitive democracy or majority democracy.
In Swiss politics, the concordance system (German Konkordanzsystem) is the integration of the major political parties into the seven-member Federal Council.
The concordance system is based on two principles
an arithmetic rule of proportionality: the Federal Council should be representative of the political forces of the country, that is, its composition should be similar to that of the Federal Assembly.
a political rule of consensus: the government must reach a compromise, even though it is composed of antagonistic parties.
One of the reasons explaining the system, which also exists at the cantonal level, is the perceived "threat" of direct democracy, since a sizeable opposition could in principle "paralyse" the government by submitting too many referendum proposals.
The fact that the members of the government must reach common decisions and stand by them is referred to as the principle of collegiality (German Kollegialitätsprinzip), grounded in the Federal Constitution (art. 177 al.1). The members of the Federal Council are supposed to forgo party politics and promote a cooperative spirit among the members of the executive. They must defend the government's official positions even if doing so goes against their personal views or those of their party.
In 1848 the new Federal Constitution made Switzerland a federation of States, and no longer a Confederation. It thus introduced an executive organ at the federal level, the Swiss Federal Council.
Official source
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