Imitation of Switzerland
Historical Reflections
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6266796 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonny Steinberg (0000-0002-6957-7735, corresponding author), Jonathan Steinberg |
| Year | 1988 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 13-30 |
| Publication date | 1988-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Government and Opposition (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0017-257X • E-ISSN: 1477-7053 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0017257x00016985 |
| OpenAlex | W2588001148 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 2 |
CAN THE SWISS CONFEDERATION BE IMITATED? THAT DEPENDS, says the historian, on what you mean by imitation. Switzerland has certainly served as a model for others, sometimes a model distinctly not to be imitated. When the American Founding Fathers gathered in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to write a new constitution and ‘to form a more perfect Union’, they had Switzerland in mind. Alexander Hamilton, a chief actor in that enterprise, devoted part of an issue of The Federalist Papers, written the following year as a defence of what the framers had drafted, to a close analysis of the Swiss Confederation. Switzerland did not impress him:The connection among the Swiss cantons scarcely amounts to a confederacy, though it is sometimes cited as an instance of the stability of such institutions. They have no common treasury; no common troops even in war; no common coin; no common judicatory; nor any other common part of sovereignty ...He recognised that they were held together ‘by their joint interest’ but saw the confederacy as a poor guarantor of internal and external coherence. ‘Whatever efficacy the union may have had in ordinary cases, it appears that the moment a cause of difference sprang up capable of trying its strength it failed
Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy · Constitution · Economic history · Federalist · Imitation · Political science · Sovereignty · Treasury · European Political History Analysis · Historical Legal Studies and Society · History · Law · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.05 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1989 - 2005 (17) |
| Highly cited | No |