Swiss Council of States Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

The Council of States of Switzerland (German: Ständerat, French Conseil des Etats, Italian Consiglio degli Stati) is the upper house of the Swiss parliament. There are 46 Councillors.

20 cantons send two Councillors each, whereas the smaller cantons of Obwalden, Nidwalden, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Appenzell Innerrhoden only send one Councillor each.

The Councillors serve for four years, and are not bound in their vote to instructions from the Cantonal authorities. Under the Constitution, the mode of election is left to the cantons; however, all cantons now provide for the councillors to be chosen by popular election. In all Cantons except for Zug and Graubünden, the Councillors are elected concurrently with the members of the National Council. In the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden the representatives are elected by the physically convened popular assembly (Landsgemeinde). With the exception of the Canton of Jura, where a proportional representation election system is used, the representatives are elected by majority vote.

There are currently (2002) 9 women in the Council of States (19.5%).

Number of seats and population

Abbr	Canton	Seats	Population ¹	per seat	²
ZH	Zurich	2	1,228,600	614,300	1.0
BE	Bern	2	947,100	473,550	1.3
VD	Vaud	2	626,200	313,100	2.0
AG	Aargau	2	550,900	275,450	2.2
BL	Basel-Landschaft	1	261,400	261,400	2.4
SG	St. Gallen	2	452,600	226,300	2.7
GE	Geneva	2	414,300	207,150	3.0
BS	Basel-Stadt	1	186,700	186,700	3.3
LU	Lucerne	2	350,600	175,300	3.5
TI	Ticino	2	311,900	155,950	3.9
VS	Valais	2	278,200	139,100	4.4
SO	Solothurn	2	245,500	122,750	5.0
FR	Fribourg	2	239,100	119,550	5.1
TG	Thurgau	2	228,200	114,100	5.4
GR	Graubünden	2	185,700	92,850	6.6
NE	Neuchâtel	2	166,500	83,250	7.4
SZ	Schwyz	2	131,400	65,700	9.4
AR	Appenzell Ausserrhoden	1	53,200	53,200	11.5
ZG	Zug	2	100,900	50,450	12.2
NW	Nidwalden	1	38,600	38,600	15.9
SH	Schaffhausen	2	73,400	36,700	16.7
JU	Jura	2	69,100	34,550	17.8
OW	Obwalden	1	32700	32700	18.8
GL	Glarus	2	38,300	19,150	32.1
UR	Uri	2	35,000	17,500	35.1
AI	Appenzell Innerrhoden	1	15,000	15,000	41.0
Overall		46	7,261,200	157,852	3.9

Notes: ¹ Population data from Cantons of Switzerland (2001). ² Relative representation compared to Zürich.

External link

• http://www.parliament.ch/e/homepage.htm

See also: Presidents of the Council of States

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