This book demonstrates the range, depth and complexity of Switzerland’s developing relations with Europe and provides detailed and up-to-date information on Switzerland itself.

The book provides the first systematic overview of Swiss political economy in comparative perspective. It provides an analysis of major socio-economic institutions, economic actors, economic and social policies, and political institutions and their recent changes.

Revised and completely updated edition of Jonathan Steinberg's classic account of Switzerland's unique political and economic system. Why Switzerland? examines the complicated voting system that allows citizens to add, strike out, or vote more than once for candidates, with extremely complicated systems of proportional representation; a collective and consensual executive leadership in both state and church; and the creation of the Swiss idea of citizenship, with tolerance of differences of language and religion, and a perfectionist bureaucracy which regulates the well-ordered society. This third edition tries to test the flexibility of the Swiss way of politics in the globalized world, social media, the huge expansion of money in world circulation and the vast tsunamis of capital which threaten to swamp it. Can the complex machinery that has maintained Swiss institutions for centuries survive globalization, neo-liberalism and mass migration from poor countries to rich ones?

Switzerland is at the centre of Europe, but is not part of the European Union. Its specific policy concerns are often less known than for other countries but might offer an alternative model to integration. This collection from some of the best academic economists in Switzerland covers monetary economics, competition, health care, environmental and housing policies, as well as aspects related to unemployment insurance, gender discrimination, poverty, and privatization to provide a comprehensive survey of the Swiss economy.

Analysing some 30 policy decisions across three countries and five decades, Sieglinde Gstohl considers why some countries continue to be 'reluctant Europeans' and offers insights into the problems associated with integration in an enlarging EU.

Using longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel to zoom in on continuity and change in the life course, this open access book describes how the lives of the Swiss population have changed in terms of health, family circumstances, work, political participation, and migration over the last sixteen years. What are the different trajectories in terms of mobility, health, wealth, and family constellations? What are the drivers behind all these changes over time and in the life course? And what are the implications for inequality in society and for social policy? The Swiss Household Panel is a unique ongoing longitudinal survey that has followed a large sample of Swiss households since 1999. The data provide the rare opportunity to go beyond a snapshot of contemporary Swiss society and give insight into the processes in people’s lives and in society that lie behind recent developments.