Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: state are all pledged to vote for the same candidate, the election is practically one of states. It is therefore possible for a President to be elected who might not command a majority in a popular vote over the whole Union. A further objection is the turmoil into which the country is thrown by a Presidential election every four years. (3) Through the multitude of appointments which are in the hands of the President, he has little time to attend to other matters, and tends to become a wire-puller engaged in questions of patronage rather than a great executive officer. (n) The Swiss Confederation. The Constitution of Switzerland is somewhat similar to that of the United States. Side by side with a federal government, whose legislative powers are strictly defined, there exist the local legislatures of the various cantons with undefined legislative powers. The Federal Government consists of (1) a Federal Executive Council composed of seven members, elected by both Houses of the Federal Legislative Assembly sitting together in congress, for three years; (2) a Federal Legislative Assembly, consisting of two Houses, viz. the Council of States, composed of two members from each of the twenty-two cantons chosen by the people for varying terms (except in six cantons where they are chosen by the legislature of the canton), and the National Council, composed of members elected for three years by the people in each canton in proportion to their populations, viz. one representative for each 20,000 inhabitants. The members of the Federal Executive Council must not be members of either House of the Federal Legislative Assembly; and though they may speak or introduce measures in either House, they may not vote. The President and Vice-President are nominated annually by the two Hous...