- Swiss Council of States
The Council of States of
Switzerland( _de. Ständerat, _fr. Conseil des Etats, _it. Consiglio degli Stati, _rm. Cussegl dals Stadis) is the smaller chamber of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, and is considered the Assembly's upper house. There are 46 Councillors.
Twenty of the country's cantons send two Councillors each. The smaller cantons of
Obwalden, Nidwalden, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Appenzell Ausserrhodenand Appenzell Innerrhodensend one Councillor each. The latter six have traditionally been considered "half-cantons", because of their smaller size in area and in population, but in practice operate as full cantons.
The Councillors serve for four years, and are not bound in their vote to instructions from the Cantonal authorities. Under the
Swiss Federal Constitution, the mode of election is left to the cantons, the proviso being that it must be a democratic method; however, all cantons now provide for the councillors to be chosen by popular election. In all Cantons except for Zug and Appenzell Innerrhoden, the Councillors are elected concurrently with the members of the National Council. In the canton of Appenzell Innerrhodenthe representatives are elected by the physically convened popular assembly (" Landsgemeinde"). With the exception of the Canton of Jura, where a proportional representation election system is used, the representatives are elected by majority vote.
There are currently (
2008) 10 women in the Council of States (22%).
List of members
List of members of the Swiss Council of States
List of members of the Swiss Council of States (2003-2007)
List of Presidents of the Swiss Council of States
eats by party
Population per seat
The Council of States represents the principle of
federalismof the Swiss constitutional state: seats are distributed by state (canton), not by population. Consequently, the number of people represented by a single seat in the Council of State varies by a factor of 40, from 15,000 for Appenzell Innerrhodento 600,000 for Zurich.
Notes: ¹ Population data from
Abbr Canton Seats Population ¹ per seat ² ZH Zurich 2 1,228,600 614,300 1.0 BE Bern 2 947,100 473,550 1.3 VD Vaud 2 626,200 313,100 2.0 AG Aargau 2 550,900 275,450 2.2 BL Basel-Landschaft 1 261,400 261,400 2.4 SG St. Gallen 2 452,600 226,300 2.7 GE Geneva 2 414,300 207,150 3.0 BS Basel-Stadt 1 186,700 186,700 3.3 LU Lucerne 2 350,600 175,300 3.5 TI Ticino 2 311,900 155,950 3.9 VS Valais 2 278,200 139,100 4.4 SO Solothurn 2 245,500 122,750 5.0 FR Fribourg 2 239,100 119,550 5.1 TG Thurgau 2 228,200 114,100 5.4 GR Graubünden 2 185,700 92,850 6.6 NE Neuchâtel 2 166,500 83,250 7.4 SZ Schwyz 2 131,400 65,700 9.4 AR Appenzell Ausserrhoden 1 53,200 53,200 11.5 ZG Zug 2 100,900 50,450 12.2 NW Nidwalden 1 38,600 38,600 15.9 SH Schaffhausen 2 73,400 36,700 16.7 JU Jura 2 69,100 34,550 17.8 OW Obwalden 1 32,700 32,700 18.8 GL Glarus 2 38,300 19,150 32.1 UR Uri 2 35,000 17,500 35.1 AI Appenzell Innerrhoden 1 15,000 15,000 41.0 Overall 46 7,261,200 157,852 3.9 Cantons of Switzerland(2001). ² Relative representation compared to Zürich.
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