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The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state¹ with its own borders, army and currency until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848. The most recently created canton is the Canton of Jura, which separated from the Canton of Berne in 1979².

In the 16th century, the Old Swiss Confederation was composed of thirteen sovereign cantons, and there were two different kinds: six land (or forest) cantons and seven city (or urban) cantons. Though they were technically part of the Holy Roman Empire, they had become de facto independent when the Swiss defeated Emperor Maximillian in 1499³. The six forest cantons were democratic republics, whereas the seven urban cantons were oligarchic republics controlled by noble families.

Each canton has its own constitution, legislature, government and courts⁴. Most of the cantons' legislatures are unicameral parliaments, their size varying between fifty-eight and two hundred seats. A few legislatures are general assemblies known as Landsgemeinden. The cantonal governments consist of either five or seven members, depending on the canton⁵. For the names of the institutions, see List of legislative and executive councils of the Cantons of Switzerland.

The Swiss Federal Constitution declares the cantons to be sovereign to the extent their sovereignty is not limited by federal law⁴. The cantons also retain all powers and competencies not delegated to the Confederation by the Constitution. Most significantly, the cantons are responsible for healthcare, welfare, law enforcement and public education; they also retain the power of taxation. The cantonal constitutions determine the degree of autonomy accorded to the municipalities, which varies but almost always includes the power to levy taxes and pass municipal laws. The sizes of the cantons vary from 37 km² to 7,105 km²; the populations vary from 14,900 to 1,244,400.

As on the federal level, all cantons provide for direct democracy. Citizens may demand a popular vote to amend the cantonal constitution or laws, or to veto laws or spending bills passed by the parliament. General popular assemblies (Landsgemeinde) are now limited to the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus. In all other cantons democratic rights are exercised by secret ballot.

List

The cantons are listed in the order given in the federal constitution. ^[1]

Flag	Abbr	Canton	Since	Capital	Population[2]	Area[3]	Density[4]	№ munic.[5]	Official languages
	ZH	Zurich	1351	Zurich	1,307,567	1,729	701	171	German
	BE	Berne	1353	Berne	962,982	5,959	158	395	German, French
	LU	Lucerne	1332	Lucerne	363,475	1,493	233	96	German
	UR	Uri	1291	Altdorf	34,989	1,077	33	20	German
	SZ	Schwyz	1291	Schwyz	141,024	908	143	30	German
	OW	Obwalden (Obwald)	1291	Sarnen	33,997	491	66	7	German
	NW	Nidwalden (Nidwald)	1291	Stans	40,287	276	138	11	German
	GL	Glarus	1352	Glarus	38,237	685	51	25	German
	ZG	Zug	1352	Zug	109,141	239	416	11	German
	FR	Fribourg	1481	Fribourg	263,241	1,671	141	168	French, German
	SO	Solothurn	1481	Solothurn	250,240	791	308	125	German
	BS	Basel-Stadt (Basel-City)	1501 (part of Basel until 1833)	Basel	185,227	37	5,072	3	German
	BL	Basel-Landschaft (Basel-Country)	1501 (part of Basel until 1833)	Liestal	269,145	518	502	86	German
	SH	Schaffhausen	1501	Schaffhausen	74,527	298	246	32	German
	AR	Appenzell Ausserrhoden (Outer Rhodes)	1513 (part of Appenzell until 1597)	Herisau / Trogen[6]	52,654	243	220	20	German
	AI	Appenzell Innerrhoden (Inner Rhodes)	1513 (part of Appenzell until 1597)	Appenzell	15,471	173	87	6	German
	SG	St. Gallen (St. Gall)	1803	St. Gallen	465,937	2,026	222	88	German
	GR	Graubünden (Grisons)	1803	Chur	188,762	7,105	26	203	German, Romansh, Italian
	AG	Aargau (Argovia)	1803	Aarau	581,562	1,404	388	229	German
	TG	Thurgau (Thurgovia)	1803	Frauenfeld / Weinfelden[7]	238,316	991	229	80	German
	TI	Ticino	1803	Bellinzona	328,580	2,812	110	190	Italian
	VD	Vaud	1803	Lausanne	672,039	3,212	188	376	French
	VS	Valais	1815	Sion	298,580	5,224	53	153	French, German
	NE	Neuchâtel	1815	Neuchâtel	169,782	803	206	62	French
	GE	Geneva	1815	Geneva	438,177	282	1,442	45	French
	JU	Jura	1979 (previously part of Bern)	Delémont	69,555	838	82	83	French
	CH	Switzerland		Bern	7,593,494	41,285	174	2,715	German, French, Italian, Romansh

The two-letter abbreviations for Swiss cantons are widely used, e.g. on car license plates and in the ISO 3166-2 codes (with the prefix "CH-", i.e. CH-SZ for the canton of Schwyz).

The traditional half-cantons

Six cantons – Obwalden, Nidwalden, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Basel-City and Basel-Country – have traditionally been called "half-cantons" or "demicantons". This term is now deprecated by constitutional scholars, as the 1999 constitution lists 26 equal cantons. The appellation "cantons with half a cantonal vote" has recently come in use in official and legal texts.

The region of Unterwalden has, in the historical record, always been divided into the half-cantons of Obwalden and Nidwalden. The other four half-cantons have resulted from the division of a preexisting canton: The canton of Appenzell split into the half-cantons of Innerrhoden and Ausserrhoden in 1597 as a result of the Reformation. The canton of Basel was divided into the half-cantons of Basel-City and Basel-Country after a revolt of the Basel countryside in 1833.

The six half-cantons have the same institutional structure as well as the same rights and obligations as all the other cantons, with two exceptions. For one thing, they elect only one member of the Council of States instead of two. Also, in popular referendums that require not only a national popular majority but also the assent of a majority of the cantons (Ständemehr / majorité des cantons), such as constitutional amendments, the result of their cantonal vote counts half as much as that of other cantons. This means that a majority of the cantons is actually the majority of twenty-three cantonal votes.

Names in other languages

Abbr	English	French	Italian	German	Romansh
AG	Aargau (rare: Argovia)	Argovie	Argovia	Aargau (help·info)	Argovia
AI	Appenzell Innerrhoden (Appenzell Inner-Rhodes)	Appenzell Rhodes-Intérieures	Appenzello Interno	Appenzell Innerrhoden (help·info)	Appenzell dadens
AR	Appenzell Ausserrhoden (Appenzell Outer-Rhodes)	Appenzell Rhodes-Extérieures	Appenzello Esterno	Appenzell Ausserrhoden (help·info)	Appenzell dador
BS	Basel-City or Basle-City	Bâle-Ville	Basilea-Città	Basel-Stadt (help·info)	Basilea-Citad
BL	Basel-Country, Basle-Country, or Basel-Land	Bâle-Campagne	Basilea-Campagna	Basel-Landschaft (help·info)	Basilea-Champagna
BE	Berne (Bern)	Berne	Berna	Bern (help·info)	Berna
FR	Fribourg	Fribourg	Friburgo	Freiburg (help·info)	Friburg
GE	Geneva	Genève	Ginevra	Genf (help·info)	Genevra
GL	Glarus	Glaris	Glarona	Glarus (help·info)	Glaruna
GR	Graubünden (Grisons)	Grisons	Grigioni	Graubünden (help·info)	Grischun
JU	Jura	Jura	Giura	Jura (help·info)	Giura
LU	Lucerne	Lucerne	Lucerna	Luzern (help·info)	Lucerna
NE	Neuchâtel	Neuchâtel	Neuchâtel	Neuenburg (help·info)	Neuchâtel
NW	Nidwalden	Nidwald	Nidvaldo	Nidwalden (help·info)	Sutsilvania
OW	Obwalden	Obwald	Obvaldo	Obwalden (help·info)	Sursilvania
SH	Schaffhausen (Schaffhouse)	Schaffhouse	Sciaffusa	Schaffhausen (help·info)	Schaffusa
SZ	Schwyz	Schwyz (or Schwytz)	Svitto	Schwyz (help·info)	Sviz
SO	Solothurn	Soleure	Soletta	Solothurn (help·info)	Soloturn
SG	St. Gallen (St. Gall)	Saint-Gall	San Gallo	St. Gallen (help·info)	Son Gagl
TG	Thurgau (Thurgovia)	Thurgovie	Turgovia	Thurgau (help·info)	Turgovia
TI	Ticino	Tessin	Ticino	Tessin (help·info)	Tessin
UR	Uri	Uri	Uri	Uri (help·info)	Uri
VS	Valais	Valais	Vallese	Wallis (help·info)	Vallais
VD	Vaud	Vaud	Vaud	Waadt (help·info)	Vad
ZG	Zug	Zoug	Zugo	Zug (help·info)	Zug
ZH	Zurich	Zurich	Zurigo	Zürich (help·info)	Turitg

Notes

1. ^ This is the order generally used in Swiss official documents. At the head of the list are the three city cantons that were considered preeminent in the Old Swiss Confederacy; the other cantons are listed in order of accession to the Confederation. This traditional order of precedence among the cantons has no practical relevance in the modern federal state, in which the cantons are equal to one another, although it still determines formal precedence among the cantons' officials (see Swiss order of precedence).
2. ^  As of 31 December 2007, Bundesamt fur Statistik (Federal Department of Statistics) (2008). "Ständige Wohnbevölkerung nach Staatsangehörigkeit, Geschlecht und Kantonen" (Microsoft Excel). Retrieved on 5 November 2008.
3. ^  km²
4. ^  Per km², based on 2000 population
5. ^  As of 31 December 2007, Bundesamt fur Statistik (Federal Department of Statistics) (2008). "Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz" (Microsoft Excel). Retrieved on 11 November 2008.
6. ^  Seat of government and parliament is Herisau, the seat of the judicial authorities is Trogen
7. ^  Seat of parliament half-yearly alternates between Frauenfeld and Weinfelden

References

See also

• List of legislative and executive councils of the Cantons of Switzerland
• List of 2005 cantonal office-holders on January 1, 2005.
• Data codes for Switzerland#Cantons
• List of Cantons of Switzerland by area
• List of Cantons of Switzerland by highest point
• Flags of Swiss cantons
• Cantonal bank, a commercial bank where the canton is the guaranteer

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cantons of Switzerland

• GeoPuzzle – Assemble cantons on a Swiss map
• Badac – Database on Swiss cantons and cities (French/German)

Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about The History of Switzerland.

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 30 December 2008, at 10:09.

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