“Why Switzerland?” — Switzerland through foreign eyes

“A country in good working order”

by Razeen Sally

Razeen Sally’s interest in Switzerland stretches back 30 years and is both intellectual and emotional. Today, he admires the country’s blend of liberalism and conservatism, while disliking its “cushy corporatism.” Both aspects present stimulating contrasts with Singapore, his current home. Razeen Sally is Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, and Director of the European Centre for Political Economy in Brussels.

My interest in, and acquaintance with, Switzerland began in the mid 1980s. As an undergraduate, I was for a time fascinated by Switzerland’s peculiar political system – its compound of American-style federalism and direct democracy. I recall giving a presentation on the subject to a Comparative Politics seminar at the LSE. My fellow students were bemused that I was so passionate about such a passionless country. And it was around this time that I started “inter-railing” around Switzerland, hiking in mountain valleys and staying in pretty youth hostels. What impressed me were Switzerland’s bourgeois virtues: its prosperity and stability, its sylvan alpine beauty and urban sophistication, its super-cleanliness and civic pride, and its sheer variety in such a small geographic space. To me, these qualities marked Switzerland out as a European exception. Since then, my visits to Switzerland have been infrequent, alas.

So, thirty years after my first visit, what do I admire about Switzerland today?

My view is much influenced by the writings of two conservative intellectuals, Jacob Burckhardt and Wilhelm Röpke. Both stressed Switzerland’s organic evolution – “bottom up” – into a successful nation-state: one that remains highly decentralised and diverse; that pragmatically adapts to the unpredictable currents of history; and that preserves social order, tradition and communitarian glue while allowing for a large degree of individual freedom. Röpke often quoted Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz to say that Swiss society was à la mesure de l’homme. Röpke, like Burckhardt, had a vision of a “Big Europe”, free, diverse, open within and without; to them, Switzerland was Big Europe en miniature. I suppose what I appreciate especially is how Switzerland has combined conservative virtues with individual freedom and economic liberalism: comparatively speaking, it has had a highly successful blend of liberalism and conservatism.

And what do I dislike about Switzerland? The country still suffers from a cushy corporatism. Agriculture remains lavishly subsidised and protected from foreign competition. It has its social-democratic redistributive tendencies and the sclerosis they occasion – the perennial scourge of prosperous societies with democratic politics. There is a strand of parochialism and xenophobia. As an individualist accustomed to living in freewheeling cities, I would find it difficult to adapt to petty regulations in apartment blocks about not using the washing machine or shower or flushing toilets at certain times of the day or night. I am half-Sri Lankan, and therefore used to a warm and friendly culture. To the visitor, the Swiss can appear a little cold and distant – though generally polite and correct – on first impression.

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