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SWITZERLAND
Population
Total population in Switzerland is 8,419,550 by 1st January 2017. 28.40% of the population is foreign born (Eurostat). The median age of Swiss is 41.85 which is slightly more than the European average of 40.36 (UN Data).
Political Parties
The most recent parliamentary election was held in October 2015. The prominent parties, vote shares in this election and their orientations are as follows (Parlgov):
|
Party Name |
Vote Share |
Ideological Orientation |
|
Swiss People's Party |
29.39 |
Agrarian |
|
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland |
18.84 |
Social democracy |
|
Radical Democratic Party |
16.4 |
Liberal |
|
Conservative Peoples Party |
11.65 |
Christian democracy |
|
Greens |
7.06 |
Green/Ecologist |
|
Green Liberal Party |
4.63 |
Green/Ecologist |
|
Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland |
4.1 |
Conservative |
|
Protestant Peoples Party |
2.1 |
Christian democracy |
Electoral System
The system used in Switzerland is Open List PR in which parties make lists of candidates to be elected, and seats get distributed to each party in proportion to the number of votes the party receives (Wikipedia). The voter turnout in 2015 election was 48.51% (idea.int).
Quality of Democracy
Switzerland is a parliamentary democracy. Quality of democracy score by Freedom House is 1 out of 7 where 1 is most free and 7 is least free. According to Transparency International, Switzerland is ranked 3rd least corrupted among 180 countries with a score of 85 out of 100.
Gender Equality
32% of the parliamentarians are women currently while there is no legislated quota for women candidates (idea.int).