Small Polity, Hybrid Administration, International Research: Public Administration in Switzerland

ABSTRACT

Switzerland presents a most peculiar political system whose institutional idiosyncrasies shape not only the practice of public administration but also the scientific study thereof. This country study presents the development and state of both public administration as practice and Public Administration as a scholarly discipline. It argues that both are largely determined by three properties of Switzerland as a political context and field of study: Semi‐direct democracy turns the administration into an important political actor. The “Milizsystem” (Switzerland's tradition of non‐professionalized, part‐time public engagement) enables hybrid careers between the public and private sectors and produces a structurally weaker political class that the professional administration regularly outmaneuvers. And the small size of the country has pushed the discipline toward international orientation while simultaneously entangling researchers with their object of study. Taken together, the Swiss case illustrates how political institutions do not merely constrain public administration but fundamentally constitute it.