{"id":43482,"date":"2021-11-20T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=43482"},"modified":"2025-12-13T22:43:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T21:43:52","slug":"covid-management-in-switzerland-too-much-federalism-or-not-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/policy\/switzerland\/covid-management-in-switzerland-too-much-federalism-or-not-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid management in Switzerland: too much federalism... or not enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Switzerland's political system did not include federalism, Covid's management would have been more efficient.<\/strong> Or rather, in keeping with the precautionary principle, \u00abless inefficient\u00bb. The fact that the Confederation, despite its special powers during this special period, must consult the cantons before taking important decisions to protect public health seems absurd to many commentators - whether professional or armchair. And the fact that these same cantons can take contradictory measures among themselves is hardly more bearable for those who like to recall the famous refrain that \u00abthe virus knows no borders\u00bb - which is true. The fact that at one point, at the start of the crisis, it was enough to cross the Neuch\u00e2tel-Berne border to go and eat at a restaurant, would be the perfect illustration of this \u00abcacophony\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

But another view is possible.<\/strong> At least, this is the view of various experts, who argue that Switzerland would have achieved better results if it had shown not less federalism, but more federalism. more<\/em> federalism. Among them is Mark Schelker, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Fribourg, whose April article in the Economic life<\/em> together with Christoph A. Schaltegger, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Lucerne, wrote a paper entitled \u00abCovid-19: how useful is federalism in times of crisis?\u00bb and gave a talk on the subject at the Journ\u00e9e lib\u00e9rale romande in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The arguments behind this little-heard and little-listened-to position?<\/strong> Firstly, the idea theorized by Hayek that information is available locally holds true even in the case of a pandemic: each canton runs its own hospital system, has a certain mentality within its population, is geographically located more or less close to outbreaks of the virus, and so on. What's more, in a context of great uncertainty, a vision is needed, but also a certain modesty. This makes comparisons between countries, and between cantons in the case of Switzerland, particularly relevant. The idea is that competition between measures will lead to optimized use of resources and the rapid identification of bad decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n