Chapter 2: Citizenship and Political Rights
Swiss citizenship, according to article 37, is legally a consequence of cantonal and municipal citizenship, reflecting the three-tiered setup of the Swiss state. Nonetheless, federal law regulates the general rules of acquisition and loss of citizenship, as set forth in article 38. The exact procedure of acquiring citizenship is governed by cantonal law. Some cantons have instituted administrative bodies to process petitions for citizenship, while in others, prospective citizens are vetted, and their petitions voted on, by a municipal citizens' assembly. These procedures are a subject of perennial political controversy between advocates of a more or less strict immigration policy.
Article 37 prohibits privileges or prejudices associated with any particular cantonal or municipal citizenship. Still, the Constitution makes allowance for the continued existence of bourgeoisies and corporations. These are traditional civic associations carried over from the Old Swiss Confederacy, often consisting of formerly aristocratic families, but regulated by cantonal public law.
Article 39 stipulates that all Swiss citizens may exercise full municipal, cantonal and national political rights at their place of residence, and article 40 allows Swiss citizens domiciled abroad to exercise political rights in Switzerland.
Read more about this topic: Title 2 Of The Swiss Federal Constitution
Famous quotes containing the words chapter, citizenship, political and/or rights:
“When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)
“Bohemia is nothing more than the little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royal archives and treasure and move away beyond the hills.”
—O. Henry [William Sydney Porter] (1862–1910)
“The merely political aspect of the land is never very cheering; men are degraded when considered as the members of a political organization.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)