Federal Council (Switzerland)
Federal Council
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| Appointer | United Federal Assembly |
| Term length | 4 years, no term limit |
| Inaugural holder |
Ulrich Ochsenbein Jonas Furrer Martin J. Munzinger Henri Druey Friedrich Frey-Herosé Wilhelm Matthias Naeff Stefano Franscini |
| Formation | 1848 |
| Website | www.admin.ch |
The Federal Council is the seven-member executive council which constitutes the federal government of the Swiss Confederation and serves as the collective executive head of government and state of Switzerland.
While the entire council is responsible for leading the federal administration of Switzerland, each Councillor heads one of the seven federal executive departments. The position of Federal President rotates among the seven Councillors on a yearly basis, with the year's Vice President becoming next year's President.
The current members of the Federal Council are, in order of seniority:
The Federal Council was instituted by the 1848 Federal Constitution as the "supreme executive and directorial authority of the Confederation".
When the Constitution was written, constitutional democracy was still in its infancy, and the founding fathers of Switzerland had little in the way of examples. While they drew heavily on the U.S. Constitution for the organisation of the federal state as a whole, they opted for the collegial rather than the presidential system for the executive branch of government (directorial system). This accommodated the long tradition of the rule of collective bodies in Switzerland. Under the Ancien Régime, the cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy had been governed by councils of pre-eminent citizens since time immemorial, and the later Helvetic Republic (with its equivalent Directorate) as well as the cantons that had given themselves liberal constitutions since the 1830s had also had good experiences with that mode of governance.
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