being the
feeble upper chamber that is commonly associated with a parliamentary
system of government, it is yet essentially lacking in the initiative
and independence of a true senate.[628]

[Footnote 627: "Neither the president nor the
vice-president may be chosen at any session from
the canton from which the president for the
preceding session was chosen; and the
vice-presidency may not be held during two
successive regular sessions by representatives of
the same canton." Art. 82.]

[Footnote 628: Arts. 80-83. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, II., 278.]

*473. Powers of the National Assembly.*--In the constitution it is
stipulated that the National Council and the Council of the States
shall have the right to consider all subjects placed within the
competence of the Confederation and not assigned to any other federal
authority.[629] The range of this competence is enormous. There are,
in the first place, certain functions which the two houses perform
while sitting jointly under the direction of the president of the
National Council. These are electoral and judicial in character and
comprise (1) the election of the Federal Council, or executive
committee of the Confederation, the federal judges, the chancellor,[630]
and the generals of the federal army; (2) the granting of pardons; (p. 429)
and (3) the adjustment of jurisdictional conflicts between different
branches of the federal governmental system.

[Footnote 629: Art. 84. Ibid., II., 278.]

[Footnote 630: The principal duty of the chancellor
is the keeping of the minutes of the National
Council. A vice-chancellor, appointed by the
Federal Council, performs a similar function in the
Council of States, under responsibility to the
chancellor.]

Much more extensive are the powers which the houses, sitting
separately, exercise concurrently. The constitution requires that the
councils be assembled at least once annually. In practice, they meet
in June and December of each year, regular sessions extending as a
rule through four or five weeks. At the request of either one-fourth
of the members of the National Council or of five cantons an
extraordinary session must be he