Comparative Table of Parliamentary TA Institutions
SWITZERLAND - SWISS FOUNDATION FOR TECHNOLOGY ASSESMENT
Institutionalisation
Switzerland is known for its
direct democracy.
Citizens can participate in decision making with regard to their
individual and
their communal life. However, those who have felt the need for an
institution
carrying out technology assessment (TA) have formed a different
opinion: »In
our developed democracy it is possible to vote on milk prices but ...
not on
the great challenges ... as for instance the adoption (or the
renunciation) of new
technologies«, explains René Longet, a former National assembly member.
It was Longet
who demanded an institutionalised technology assessment in order to
encourage
public debate on science and society, technology and democracy.
In 1991, the Swiss Science and
Technology
Council (SSTC) was granted a mandate to originate a technology
assessment programme
for the years 1992 to 1995. The SSTC was assigned to the Federal
Department of
Home Affairs (Eidgenössisches Departement des Innern, EDI). After a
successful
test phase, the mandate was extended and became statutory as part of
the Swiss
federal law on scientific research (Schweizerisches Bundesgesetz über
die
Forschung). Thereby, technology assessment was definitely accepted into
the
scope statement of the SSTC. Another amendment followed in 2007. The
issue of
the administrative affiliation of TA-SWISS was taken up again. As in a
few
other European countries, technology assessment was entrusted to the
academies
of sciences, in this case to the Swiss Academies of Art and Sciences
(Akademien
der Wissenschaften Schweiz). Since January 1, 2008, TA-SWISS has become
a centre
of excellence and an organisation unit of its own within the Swiss
Academies
of Arts and Sciences. This independence has been formally
acknowledge by TA-SWISS becoming a foundation in October 2016. A
foundation council with six members representing the political and
academic world is now responsible for the overall management of
TA-SWISS.