Many books, ranging from the scholarly treatise to the unsophisticated work popularizing political science, have been written about Switzerland’s political institutions. Oswald Sigg’s booklet treads a path between the two extremes. Avoiding giving his reader a dry account of institutional structure, he introduces him to an organism, that has evolved continually, and has been called on again and again, to prove itself in the daily round of political experience. This is why the well-oiled machinery of direct democracy, that is often admired abroad, may not always function smoothly. In the compass of this small booklet the reader gains a true insight into the nature of a complex subject.
Oswald Sigg was born in Zurich in 1944 and studied Social Sciences at the University of Bern. His doctoral dissertation was an analysis of the effects of federal popular initiatives. During the time of his studies he worked both in industry and journalism. Mr. Sigg has been in the Federal Administration since I974 and spokesman for the Federal Finance Department since 1980.
