Few people in Switzerland know who the members of their government are, and it is doubtful whether a majority can remember the name of the President. Nobody outside Switzerland knows anything about the Swiss government, nor does it matter that one should. The cantons operate their separate systems with a good deal of independence of each other. They compete to make themselves attractive to their citizens by keeping their taxes low, and they do not try to win elections by putting taxes and expenditure up. They treat their citizens as their customers.
Swiss society is genuinely capitalist, with private family wealth growing generation by generation.
The Swiss believe that their own prosperity has three pillars. Of course they also enjoy the benefits of free trade with the European Community, as the EC does with them. Fifty years after the Second World War, Britain is earning 49 centimes to the Swiss franc. When one examines the Swiss example, one can see the virtues of independence. The independence of the cantons has prevented the creation of an oppressive centralised state, taxing its citizens in order to bribe its voters.