Swiss citizens approve of their government and the way democracy is practiced; they trust the authorities and are satisfied with the range of services Swiss governments provide. This is quite unusual when compared to other countries. This open access book provides insight into the organization and the functioning of the Swiss state. It claims that, beyond politics, institutions and public administration, there are other factors which make a country successful. The authors argue that Switzerland is an interesting case, from a theoretical, scientific and a more practice-oriented perspective. While confronted with the same challenges as other countries, Switzerland offers different solutions, some of which work astonishingly well.

This book studies the question of e-Government development from a multi-faceted perceptive. The first introductory chapter outlines the importance of public sector digitalisation. The second chapter clarifies the used e-Government terminology and divides the concept between electronic public service delivery and electronic practice of democracy. Influential factors having an impact on the introduction of e-Government projects are divided between those of organisational, institutional, individual and technological nature and discussed in detail in the third chapter. The fourth chapter presents empirical findings from the Swiss case study that constitutes both an exceptional and exemplary model of e-Government development. High quality of public services and the participative style of democracy would seem to predestine the country to be the precursor in the field of e-Government. However, the state of e-Government development does not correspond to the potential that Swiss contextual conditions offer. The importance of the Swiss case study for the understanding of e-Government as an institutional and organisational transformation is outlined in the fifth chapter.

Why has Switzerland - a tiny, land-locked country with few natural advantages - become so successful for so long at so many things? In banking, pharmaceuticals, machinery, even textiles, Swiss companies rank alongside the biggest and most powerful global competitors. How did they get there? How do they continue to refresh themselves? Does the Swiss 'Sonderfall' (special case) provide lessons others can learn and benefit from? Can the Swiss continue to perform in a hyper-competitive global economy? Swiss Made offers answers to these and many other questions about the country as it describes the origins, structures and characteristics of the most important Swiss companies. The authors suggest success is due to a large degree to sound entrepreneurial thinking and an openness to new ideas. And they venture a surprising forecast on the country's ability to keep pace in an age of globalisation.

The cases of Singapore and Switzerland present a fascinating puzzle: how have two small states achieved similar levels of success through divergent pathways? Are both approaches equally sustainable, and what lessons do they hold for each other? While Singapore is the archetypal developmental state, whose success can be attributed to strong political leadership and long-term planning, Switzerland's success is a more organic process, due to the propitious convergence of strong industries and a resilient citizenry. Yet throughout the course of their development, both countries have had to deal with the dual challenges of culturally heterogeneous populations and challenging regional contexts. Edited by Yvonne Guo and Jun Jie Woo, with forewords from Ambassadors Thomas Kupfer and Tommy Koh, Singapore and Switzerland: Secrets to Small State Success features contributions from distinguished scholars and policymakers who explore the dynamics of two small states which have topped international rankings in a dazzling array of policy areas, from economic competitiveness to education to governance, but whose pathways to success could not be more different.

Switzerland likely has the most particular naturalization system in the world. Whereas in most countries citizenship attribution is regulated at the central level of the state, in Switzerland each municipality is accorded the right to decide who can become a Swiss citizen. This book aims at exploring naturalization processes from a comparative perspective and to explain why some municipalities pursue more restrictive citizenship policies than others. The Swiss case provides a unique opportunity to approach citizenship politics from new perspectives. It allows us to go beyond formal citizenship models and to account for the practice of citizenship. The analytical framework combines quantitative and qualitative data and helps us understand how negotiation processes between political actors lead to a large variety of local citizenship models. An innovative theoretical framework, integrating Bourdieu's political sociology, combines symbolic and material aspects of naturalizations and underlines the production processes of ethnicity.

This overview demonstrates how government managers can set agency goals and monitor results.

This open access book presents a topical, comprehensive and differentiated analysis of Germany’s public administration and reforms. It provides an overview on key elements of German public administration at the federal, Länder and local levels of government as well as on current reform activities of the public sector. It examines the key institutional features of German public administration; the changing relationships between public administration, society and the private sector; the administrative reforms at different levels of the federal system and numerous sectors; and new challenges and modernization approaches like digitalization, Open Government and Better Regulation. Each chapter offers a combination of descriptive information and problem-oriented analysis, presenting key topical issues in Germany which are relevant to an international readership.