Switzerland

The central European country of Switzerland is characterized by linguistic, ethnic, and religious diversity. The Swiss “model,” if it exists in terms of religion, is distinguished by a management of pluralism inscribed in the history of the country. A biconfessional land since the 16th-century Protestant reform, like Germany and Holland, Switzerland showed its inclination for independence from the German Roman Empire very early and adopted an imposing federal system regarding religious matters.

Remarkable statistical and analytical material is available in Switzerland due partly to an official record of the population's makeup that is taken every 10 years, including data about religion, and partly to numerous studies in religious sociology, a discipline that developed late but steadily in Switzerland. The last available figures from 2000 indicate that membership in the two largest Christian churches—Roman Catholic (41%) and Reformed (33%)—is largely stable, representing by far the majority in the confederation in spite of a slight erosion in practice and affiliation, which is more evident among Protestants than Catholics. The number of Muslims and Orthodox Christians has increased as a result of migrations, specifically from the former Yugoslavia, and the number of people not belonging to any religion has increased as well, as has been the case in all Western countries. [Page 1245]Changes in the religious domain occur at a slower pace than in social and cultural fields.

The federal state was born in 1848 and presently acts under the constitutional rules in effect since January 1, 2000, which brought the previous constitution of 1874 up-to-date. Apart from the reference to “the all powerful God” maintained in the preamble and the guarantee of fundamental religious freedom (Article 15), the federal constitution does not deal with religion.

Unlike in Germany, church tax in Switzerland can only be levied on a voluntary basis. The Swiss “model” consists, therefore, of a double architecture, involving two principles—one touching on the protection of fundamental liberties and representing the pole of abstract universality and the other, which is communitarian, based on respect for both historical tradition and the democratic ideal, pertaining to the majority.

This system thought of by some people as a complex balanced model, leads to what some people perceive as unfair treatment of minority religions. For example, concrete shortfalls exist in the recognition of rights for religious minorities. Switzerland is an example of unsteady laicization, a strange mixture of changes in the Christian West.