Switzerland in Perspective

(Hardback)

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This collection of 12 essays by Swiss social scientists is an analysis of Swiss society. The book covers a wide range of subjects, social, economic and political. The rapid growth of urbanization in the last few decades is examined first and this, in many ways, provides a context for the other phenomena that are looked at. Next there is a section on the way in which political decisions are taken and on the the institutional framework of power. The role of trade unions is discussed in relation to the work ethic. There are also chapters on youth and education , and the role of women in Swiss society, the way in which the problems of an ageing population are being addressed and the methods employed to tackle crime. All in all the book seeks to provide the reader with a sound overview of Swiss society, based on the latest research and statistical information.

Reviews

Largely sociological in approach, these 12 essays deal with contemporary Switzerland. Insofar as they have a common theme, it is the question of what makes the Swiss special: in a Europe beset by all-too-familiar social problems--crime, drug addiction, ethnic confrontations, labor troubles, to name only a few--Switzerland appears as an island of calm and sanity. The answers that emerge are, as is to be expected, a mixture of the differential, the definitional, and the notional. The Swiss, profiting from long experience, do some things differently. Centuries of multinational experience have produced the closest approximation to workable federalism in any Western society, and the emergence of Switzerland as a vast international banking center has led to a gigantic oversupply of domestic investment capital. Swiss industry, not being forced to operate on a shoestring, has, as a result, succeeded in coopting the labor force, which thinks of itself as being associated with management in an infallible profit-making scheme. One may always ignore problems by defining them out of existence, and several of the essays maintain that this is what the Swiss themselves have been doing systematically. ...University collections.-Choice
"Largely sociological in approach, these 12 essays deal with contemporary Switzerland. Insofar as they have a common theme, it is the question of what makes the Swiss special: in a Europe beset by all-too-familiar social problems--crime, drug addiction, ethnic confrontations, labor troubles, to name only a few--Switzerland appears as an island of calm and sanity. The answers that emerge are, as is to be expected, a mixture of the differential, the definitional, and the notional. The Swiss, profiting from long experience, do some things differently. Centuries of multinational experience have produced the closest approximation to workable federalism in any Western society, and the emergence of Switzerland as a vast international banking center has led to a gigantic oversupply of domestic investment capital. Swiss industry, not being forced to operate on a shoestring, has, as a result, succeeded in coopting the labor force, which thinks of itself as being associated with management in an infallible profit-making scheme. One may always ignore problems by defining them out of existence, and several of the essays maintain that this is what the Swiss themselves have been doing systematically. ...University collections."-Choice

Author Bio

JANET EVE HILOWITZ received her doctoral degree from Oxford University. She has done research and taught on modern European societies, and has consulted in Geneva for the International Labour Office and the World Health Organization on developing country issues.