Do you think the number of Cantons could ever change? do you think some Cantons could join, or divide based on economic interests? What would your ideal administrative structure look like? Less Cantons or more?

For example, in 2016 France made a major modification of its regions, but I guess it's easier because they are more centralized.

edit: I found this article
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/nouvo_does-switzerland-need-fewer-cantons/43311262



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Capital_Health2186

12 comments

  1. Objectively it has to change but sadly most swiss people don’t think like that.

  2. It’s somehow written in stone, but it’s still… flexible 😉

    Check out the newest canton’s history:

    [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Canton_of_Jura#The_Jura_separatist_movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Canton_of_Jura#The_Jura_separatist_movement)

    Also, there are ideas to separate ZH Stadt (with Winterthur, so it’s perhaps better to use the plural ZH Städte) and ZH Landschaft, much like the Basels, because of oftentimes diametral needs.

    Would also solve the looming 7-digits car plate problem: ZS and ZL 😉

    Edit: You might find more infos about “Zexit” here: [https://zexit.ch/](https://zexit.ch/)

  3. Ticino splits into the canton of Lugano and the canton of Bellinzona

  4. It would maybe make sence to do this, but it will never happen. There is to much history and cantonal pride for this to happen.
    Most of the cantonal borders dont just exist since 1848. They often reach back into medival times under the Holy Roman Empire.
    Its hard to change borders that have been here for so long.

  5. Realistically, no. Splitting a canton in two (ZH, TI) would reduce their seats in the Parlament, especially in the important Ständerat – like the other half-cantons. This is quite a significant loss if power. And increasing the total number of seats is something the other cantons will not agree to for the same reason.

  6. Zurich probably will refuse: the majority lives in the city and the current configuration favors center candidates for the senate. Making a split would favor candidates at the extreme of the spectrum. 

  7. France essentially clustered departments together into bigger super-regions where many services were shared to get scaling advantages, but some still remain at the “old” department level.

    In Switzerland this essentially already happened at the metropolitan level, with the TEB (Basel) and Grand Genève. Those are more practical setups to solve particular issues across cantons (and countries) than a big political “let’s vote to unify these cantons” movement though.

  8. Yes. Anything below 100‘000 population shall either unite with multiple other small neigbours or be absorbed by larger neighbouring cantons. The existence of two Appenzells as essentially small states with one of them having under 20k people is utterly ridiculous. But as soon you start this debate people from these places suddenly feel like they live in 1848 again and not 2026.

  9. It has happened before, so it might happen again in the future.
    Personally I feel like if it does, it will probably be a division again, probably because of different needs. Joining regions doesn’t seem to work that well at the communal level despite the recent trend, so probably it wouldn’t go over too well with entire cantons.

  11. It makes no sense to me, that our tiny country is “micro-managed” by 26 cantons (very simplified, but i guess i am naive concerning this matter).

    Cross-cantonal cooperation does not work well; it is complicated and slow. Just one example: why is each canton allowed to decide for itself how to organize its education system? That cannot guarantee equal education, but that’s just my two cents.
    I live on a cantonal border and don’t understand why I have to travel an hour by train to visit a cantonal authority (BehĂśrde) when I can reach the same office in the neighboring canton in 15 minutes. Not the best examples, I know…

    Walter KnĂśpfel had a good idea for restructuring the cantonal structures. But I fear that Switzerland is still far from willing, ready and able to improve these unnecessary complicated structures.

  12. I think the newspaper Republik covered this before, with a proposal to merge (or split?) multiple cantons, like Nidwalden, Obwalden and Lucerne, Schwyz and Zug, St. Gallen and the Appenzells, Basel S and L etc. I think that would be a great idea, to make the cantons more equal in size, power, importance and all that

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