business, the
departmental head enjoys to-day a larger measure of independence than
formerly. A quorum of the Council consists of four members, and no
member may absent himself from a session without excuse. Except in
elections, voting is _viva voce_, and an abstract of proceedings is
published regularly in the official gazette of the Republic.

[Footnote 618: Art. 103. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, II., 284. For a synopsis of the law
of July 8, 1887, whereby an apportionment of
functions was made among the various departments
see Dupriez, Les Ministres, II., 239-246.]

[Footnote 619: Members of the Council are
re-elected, almost as a matter of course, as long
as they are willing to serve. Between 1848 and 1893
the average period of service exceeded ten years.
Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., 203.]

*469. Actual Character of the Council.*--The Federal Council, although
at certain points resembling a cabinet, is not a cabinet, and no such
thing as cabinet government, or a parliamentary system, can be said to
exist in Switzerland. The Council does, it is true, prepare measures
and lay them before the Assembly. Its members even appear on the floor
of the two chambers and defend these measures. But the councillors are
not, and may not be, members of the Assembly; they do not, of
necessity, represent a common political party, faith, or programme,
they are not necessarily agreed among themselves upon the merits or
demerits of a particular legislative proposal; and if overruled by (p. 425)
a majority of the Assembly they do not so much as think of retiring
from office, for each member has been elected by a separate ballot for
a fixed term.[620] In other words, the Council is essentially what
Swiss writers have themselves denominated it, i.e., an executive
committee of the Federal Assembly. It possesses a large measure of
solidarity, but only for the purposes of routine business. Quite
superior to it in every way--so much so that even its most ordinary
administrative measures may be set aside--is the Assembly, as against
which the Council possesses not a shred of constitutional prerogative.
In the Assembly is vested ultimate authority, and in the event of a
clash of policies what the Assembly orders the Council performs.
Between the e