Zur Begrenzung der schleichenden Zentralisierung im Schweizerischen Bundesstaat / On government centralization and its limitation in Switzerland

Christoph Schaltegger and Winistörfer Marc M.

ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 2014, vol. 65, issue 1, 183-228

Abstract: Switzerland is a country with a far-reaching federalist constitution. Even though, a secular trend towards government centralization can be observed over the course of time. The latest reform of the federal fiscal equalization scheme in 2008 strengthened the principle of fiscal equivalence. However, the process of government centralization has not come to an end. We argue that the government proposal of a new fiscal constitution in 1948 was more promising since it proposed a clear distinction between the tax and spending power of the federal and the sub-federal level. The crucial aspect of maintaining fiscal equivalence is to implement institutional safeguards to limit the political tendency towards centralization. We argue that a more prominent implementation of the principle of subsidiarity, a specific constitutional boundary for central government intervention, a more limited system of intergovernmental grants and further “brakes” against government centralization should be discussed.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1515/ordo-2014-0111

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