Talk:Swiss Federal Council/Archive 1

Archive 1

1

I'd like to move this from Federal Council of Switzerland to Swiss Federal Council. -- User:Docu

8 persons in the phote, 7 ministers - who's the extra?

read the captiondab (ᛏ)

Head of State

ok, first of all, with re-inserting the "head of state" statement, you also deleted

the president of the National Council of Switzerland is considered the highest ranking official.

are you disputing this as well? Re "head of state", can you show me an off-Wikipedia reference? I realize the council is featured on head of state, but I argue that's just as wrong. head of state is interwikied to de:Staatsoberhaupt, and there is stated

Einige wenige moderne Staaten kennen kein Staatsoberhaupt. Dazu zählen Japan, die Schweiz und San Marino.

"A few modern states do not have a head of state, among them Japan, Switzerland, and San Marino".

So, Switzerland has a council of ministers, the president of which has the title "President of the Confederation", but he is not considered head of state, or even as higher-ranking than the president of the national council. At most, we can state that the president of the confederation is taking on international representative tasks normally reserved for the head of state of other countries. You see, the Swiss take some pride in their flat hierarchy where the "head of state" is actually the people, and it is no coincidence that the title is avoided. dab (ᛏ) 07:04, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Well, the CIA World Factbook refers to the president of the Swiss Confederation as "both the chief of state and the head of government". Considering that the president actually performs the ceremonial role normally associated with heads of state elsewhere and considering that he presides over the Federal Council, I think the CIA's assessment is pretty accurate while the Wikipedia article is not ! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.6.104.244 (talk • contribs)

Well, I agree that the President of the National Council is considered the "highest" official, but, as it was phrased, one might have understood that he was head of state. I'm not sure if his status is a matter of order of precedence or just seating when the Federal Assembly convenes for the election of the Federal Council. The article about the his/her office could detail this.

For an offsite reference you may want to use ISBN 3725549079 though the most recent edition may have evolved. Oddly your quote omits 800 years of Captains Regent. Further, maybe we should include in the article that the President of the Confederation didn't traditionally travel abroad (the foreign minister does) and foreign heads of state are often received by several if not all seven councillors. -- User:Docu

well, I don't know about San Marino. I just know that Switzerland makes a *point* of not having a head of state, what with direct democracy and all. Therefore it is at least misleading to say the federal council is the head of state, even if he is perceived as such abroad. yes, the foreign minister bit would make things clearer: she is not visiting other heads of state because she is one herself, but simply because it is her job to look after Switzerland's relations with other states. dab (ᛏ) 11:23, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

As you asked for an off-site reference above, may I ask for one from you as well? BTW isn't it usual that all seven councillors together receive visiting heads of states? - User:Docu

I just realized that according to the official site, the FC is not "head of government", it is the government itself,

The Swiss Government consists of the seven members of the Federal Council who are elected by the United Federal Assembly for a four-year mandate.

its position is described as "supreme authority of the country" (translating oberste leitende Behörde des Landes, with the additional leitend ("supreme executive authority")). [1] . As for the President of the National Council, he actually sits front center, leading the sessions. "highest official" simoly gestures at the idea that the legislative is superior to the executive, which only carries out the laws. the emphasis is on official, since yet above the legislative is the sovereign appointing the legislative, i.e. the citizens. dab (ᛏ) 11:41, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Request

Moved here from User talk:Sandstein.

Please mention the language(s) in which the Swiss Federal Council members comminicate with each other at the concerned page.Cygnus_hansa 15:14, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I can't add it to the article, because I have no sources on this and the details of Council sessions are not public. However, it is my understanding that every Councillor uses whatever official language of Switzerland they want to (usually their mother tongue), which the others are then expected to at least understand. This is common practice wherever Swiss of different language interact. However, native speakers of Italian or Romansh usually use French or German in such cases, because command of Italian and Romansh is not widespread. Also, on important occasions with a great number of participants from across the country (e.g. in parliament), simultaneous interpreting is usually available. Sandstein 15:50, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I see.Cygnus_hansa 16:12, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

GA Re-Review and In-line citations

Note: This article has a small number of in-line citations for an article of its size and currently would not pass criteria 2b.
Members of the Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles are in the process of doing a re-review of current Good Article listings to ensure compliance with the standards of the Good Article Criteria. (Discussion of the changes and re-review can be found here). A significant change to the GA criteria is the mandatory use of some sort of in-line citation (In accordance to WP:CITE) to be used in order for an article to pass the verification and reference criteria. It is recommended that the article's editors take a look at the inclusion of in-line citations as well as how the article stacks up against the rest of the Good Article criteria. GA reviewers will give you at least a week's time from the date of this notice to work on the in-line citations before doing a full re-review and deciding if the article still merits being considered a Good Article or would need to be de-listed. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us on the Good Article project talk page or you may contact me personally. On behalf of the Good Articles Project, I want to thank you for all the time and effort that you have put into working on this article and improving the overall quality of the Wikipedia project. Agne 23:50, 25 September 2006 (UTC)