so that, on the whole, the
party situation in the Council remains to-day very nearly what it was
ten years ago. By popular suffrage the Radicals are continued
uninterruptedly in control, although the people do not hesitate again
and again to reject measures framed by Radical administrators and
law-makers and submitted to the vote of the nation.

[Footnote 638: Upon this subject, especially the
effects of the referendum upon political parties,
see Lowell, Governments and Parties, II., 314-332.]

*481. The Inactivity of Parties.*--A second important fact respecting
the parties of Switzerland is their all but total lack of organization
and machinery. Parties are little more than groups of people who hold
similar views upon public questions. Of office-seekers there are few,
and of professional politicians fewer still. Elections are not
infrequently uncontested, and only at rare intervals do they serve to
awaken any considerable public enthusiasm. There are no campaign
managers and funds, no platforms, no national committees, no elaborate
systems of caucuses or conventions. Candidates for seats in the
National Council are nominated by political gatherings in the several
districts, but the proceedings are frequently of an all but purely
non-partisan character. Political congresses are held occasionally,
and a few political associations exist, but their activities are
limited and comparatively unimportant. So far as there is party vigor
at all, it is expended principally upon local issues and contests
within the cantons.

Finally, it must be observed that the Swiss government is not a
government by party at all. The Federal Council regularly includes
members of more than one party, and there is no attempt to preserve in
the body a homogeneous partisan character. Even in the legislative
councils considerations of party are but incidental. Upon by no means
all public issues are party lines drawn, and where they are drawn (p. 437)
there is seldom that compactness and discipline of party to which
legislative assemblies in other nations are accustomed. An evidence of
the secondary importance of party demarcation is afforded by the fact
that, instead of being arranged in groups according to party
affiliations, the members of the National Council are so placed, as a
rule, that all of the deputies of a canton occupy contiguous seats.
The Federal Council, being elected by the