The parliamentary system in western countries can be roughly divided into four models: one is the American model, which implements the "presidential system" regime; Second, the French model implements a "semi-presidential system" regime; Third, the British model implements the "parliamentary system" as a whole; Fourth, the Swiss model implements the "committee system". Committee system refers to the highest power of the government, which is in the hands of a Committee, but emphasizes that "parliament" is still the core.
The Swiss government agency is the "Federal Council", which is somewhat similar to our "PSC" agency. Swiss federal council consists of seven members, who are elected by a joint committee of the National Assembly and the Federal Assembly according to a majority ratio. The term of office is four years, and you can be re-elected, but you can't be a member of parliament. The seven members are Foreign Minister, Interior Minister, Minister of Justice and Police, Minister of Military Affairs, Minister of Finance, Minister of National Economy and Minister of Communications. Every year, the Federal Council elects 1 as its chairman and 1 as its vice-chairman. The term of office of the chairman is 1 year. If he cannot be re-elected after the expiration, he will be replaced by the vice chairman. The vice-chairman acted as chairman, adding a vice-chairman and being promoted to chairman the following year. In this way, seven members took turns as "heads of state".
The characteristics of the Swiss Committee system are: first, the parliament is supreme. Parliament has not only legislative power, but also administrative decision-making power, and is the highest administrative leading organ. Parliament is the superior organ of the Federal Council, which has the right to supervise the Council, and can revoke the decision of the Council, while the Federal Council may not veto or return the laws passed by Parliament for reconsideration; The Committee must obey the policy decided by parliament. The Committee cannot dissolve Parliament, and Parliament has no power to overthrow the Committee. Because of this, members of the Committee can freely express their opinions in the parliament and provide consultation and reference for the final decision of the parliament without having to bear joint responsibility.
Second, equality of authority. The Federal Council elects its chairman and vice-chairman from among its seven members. Although the Federal President is the head of state and government, he enjoys some honorary and formal powers, such as representing the country externally and presiding over the affairs of the Federal Council internally, and other powers are equal to other members of the Committee. Decisions must be agreed by more than four members, and the chairman of the Federation has no decision-making power.
Third, the collegial judgment. Each of the seven members of the Federal Council is in charge of a department, and the minister of each department has the right to handle some unimportant affairs of the department, but all important decisions are discussed and passed by the Committee collectively. Fourth, non-partisan politics. The Federal Council is jointly governed by Radical Party, Christian Democratic Party, Socialist Party and Intermediate Democratic Alliance. But as a government, the federal government is above party relations and does not represent the interests of a political party in parliament.
Swiss federal council is actually the "cabinet" or "government" of other western countries. The seven members of the Federal Council are nominated by all political parties and elected by the Federal Parliament after repeated consultations between all political parties and states. Generally speaking, the Radical Party has two seats, the Christian Democratic Party has two seats, the Socialist Party has two seats, and the Central Democratic Alliance 1 seat. The Swiss call this "2-2-2- 1" structure a "magic formula", which has shown amazing stability since 1959, and the average term of office of the federal parliament is as long as 10 years. Therefore, swiss federal council is also regarded as one of the most stable governments in the world.