Lessons for an independent Scotland - Switzerland

Switzerland has been in the news recently because it held a referendum about whether to cap its population at 10 million. Ironically, a major reason Swiss voters turned down this proposal - which would have changed their relationship with the EU - was because they can see Brexit has been an absolute disaster for Britain. 

Nevertheless, having a referendum meant that Switzerland conducted its debate over immigration in a peaceful and engaging way where citizens felt empowered. 

Switzerland has four national languages and includes people with different cultural identities. To pass a constitutional change in Switzerland, you need a "double majority" - a majority of the total national vote and a majority of the cantons (devolved regions). This protects linguistic minorities from being permanently outvoted by the Swiss-German-speaking majority. 

The background 

Switzerland is famous for the Alpine landscapes, often pictured on its chocolate boxes, watches, democracy and neutrality. It has one of the strongest local democracies in the world.

It started out as a bottom-up enterprise, when communities who lived in the mountain valleys teamed up for mutual defence. Before roads and tunnels, the communities were separated by geography and centralisation was impractical, so preserving local autonomy was natural. This gave rise to the canton system. The 26 cantons have a lot of powers, including tax-raising ones. 

The modern Swiss state was formed in the mid-19th century, after being invaded and made part of Napoleon’s empire as the Helvetic Republic. When it re-emerged, it used its historic opportunity to write a constitution that would protect the different areas and peoples of the country.

Switzerland is a bit more than half the size of Scotland, but its population is almost double, at nine million. It is famous as the home of many international brands, like Nestle, Novartis, Credit Suisse and Zurich Insurance. It has other strengths - for example, it is almost equal in terms of domestic food production to Scotland, despite having a lot less farmland. 

Switzerland has built its local democracy on the principle that the people are sovereign

In Switzerland, the people - not Parliament - are sovereign. That is Scotland’s tradition too, but not England’s. 

For example, when the Supreme Court ruled against Scotland’s right to have another independence referendum, it cited the unlimited sovereignty of Westminster. It said that, no matter how the Scottish people vote, Westminster can always say No. In opposing that ruling, lawyers for the Scottish Government quoted a famous judgment by Lord President Cooper in MacCormick v Lord Advocate 1953 which disputed the idea that the Treaty of Union superseded Scotland’s ancient principles. Despite this judgement, Westminster continues to act as if Scotland’s long democratic tradition doesn't matter).    

Switzerland has the same sort of legal tradition as Scotland and they have built it into law. An example of this is that citizens can challenge any law passed by parliament if they gather 50,000 signatures (a referendum), or propose brand-new constitutional amendments with 100,000 signatures (an initiative). 

Some argue that this means there are too many referendums. But the Swiss are very used to having public discussions about important matters and then deciding one way or another with a plebiscite. 

Some examples include votes on:

• Immigration and citizenship rights

• Climate and environmental protections

• Pension reforms

• Nuclear energy phase-out

• Corporate responsibility

• Housing issues

• Healthcare funding

• Taxation and social welfare changes

• Food security

A consensual, regionally-balanced system

Switzerland has a President but no Prime Minister. Instead of one PM, the government is led by a seven-member Federal Council. The seats are shared out between the major parties, and the leader becomes the President, serving a one-year term. This creates a culture of consensus where the different political parties have to work together to establish a programme for government. It is also stable because elections don’t completely change it. 

In Switzerland, the second chamber, the Council of States, consists of 46 members, two each for 20 cantons and one each for six small or half-cantons. Members are elected for four-year terms. For any federal law to pass, both chambers must debate it independently and agree on the text. This ensures that all the different parts of the country have a strong voice in the second chamber. 

Compare this to the UK's second chamber. The House of Lords is huge and highly weighted towards London and the South East. It contains many people whose reasons for being there are opaque or who appear to have bought their seats. Yet they have lifelong membership of the UK Parliament. There are no members who support Scottish independence. 

Land rules that ban foreign ownership

Switzerland has long recognised the strategic importance of land ownership. Legislation known as the Lex Koller, after Arnold Koller who first passed it, restricts the purchase of Swiss real estate by foreign nationals. It ensures that a greater proportion of land and housing remains under Swiss ownership and curbs market speculation. 

Switzerland therefore has a much more equal land ownership system than Scotland. In Scotland, half of all privately owned rural land is held by just 433 people and companies. Many Scottish estates are now owned by absentee owners, based either in England or abroad and they change hands for huge sums on the international markets, usually far out of reach of the budgets of community buy-outs. 

As a result of Switzerland's approach to land ownership, Swiss land is owned in much smaller parcels than Scottish land -  the average size of a Swiss farm is 20 hectares. In 2017, a referendum about food security passed and as a result, the Swiss government is obliged to support its small farmers and support them to produce food. They introduced a tariff system to protect local food producers. 

Switzerland is a member of the European Free Trade Association and it participates in the free movement Schengen Zone. It is not a full EU member and does not participate in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, but in a similar way it subsides farming and food production from general taxation, so that the price citizens pay at the till is affordable. 

Unfortunately for the Scottish food and farming sector, Scotland has no say in the UK’s trade deals. In its rush for quick wins after Brexit, for example, London gave farmers in New Zealand open access to Scottish markets. (Read more about this on our sister publication Business for Scotland). 

About half of Switzerland’s food is produced domestically, a high amount given its mountainous conditions and population density. It is actually about the same proportion as Scotland, despite the fact that Scotland has roughly four times more agricultural land, and double the amount of prime agricultural land. Switzerland proves that a system of small farmers is not necessarily less productive, despite what big landowners claim.

Scotland’s democratic future is as an independent country

 Continually outweighed by England’s larger population, Scotland has seen its natural resources like energy privatised by governments it didn’t vote for. It suffers energy poverty rates that are three times England’s as result of the anglocentric management of the UK’s energy network. 

Scotland had no say over Brexit and no say over the trade deals done since. 

The UK’s old-fashioned and centrist democratic system can't be improved by tinkering with added devolution for English regions and there is no appetite for the much-promised federalism or Devo Max which would only be sticking-plaster solutions anyway. 

Why should Scotland wait for crumbs from a UK government that barely recognises its existence? The best we are seeing right now is a "Number 10" north plan where the PM is basically saying he will occasionally work from home in Manchester (North! It's actually closer to London than it is to the Scottish border). 

An independent Scotland can build a better future without a southern Prime Minister, an unelected House of Lords, or an anglocentric political class dictating terms geographically hundreds of miles but culturally and socially light years away from the direction Scotland is travelling in. 

Instead, once independent, Scotland will have the historic opportunity to build a better future, with a consensual, direct democracy where sovereignty belongs not to Parliament but to the people. That's what we can learn from the Swiss.