Switzerland is not only a multilingual country, but also a semi-direct federation. Power is thus shared across three levels of government and between elected representatives and the people directly. What advantages and disadvantages do these institutional structures offer regarding the many official and non-official languages and the culture the maintain? And what changes have occurred in the past decades that point to growing tensions or, alternatively, the lessening of cultural conflicts? This talk explores the longue durée of intercultural political relations in Switzerland with a specific emphasis on the impact of federalism and direct democracy.

Dr Sean Müller is an Assistant Professor at the University of Lausanne, specialising in Swiss and comparative federalism, territorial politics and direct democracy. He holds a PhD in Politics & Government from the University of Kent (UK) and previously worked as a senior lecturer at the University of Bern. Between 2020 and 2025 he lead an SNF “Eccellenza” research project at Lausanne on multilingual federations, city networks, and cross-border cooperation.