The Digital Federal Prank -- Why the DVS Switzerland Deserves a Museum

Welcome to digital Switzerland -- the country where even the future has a backlog. The Digital Administration Switzerland (DVS) was once founded to bring order to the federal data chaos. But today it often seems like a kind of national herbal tea: warm, mild -- and completely ineffective against real problems.

Federalism: 26 cantons, 2,200 municipalities -- and everyone cooks their own digital soup

Switzerland loves diversity. And for heaven's sake: diversity is beautiful. But in digital public administration, it leads to each canton building its own solution -- preferably three of them -- while the municipalities are happy if they can manage a PDF upload at all.

The DVS tries to coordinate all of this. A job that's about as promising as herding 2,200 free-roaming cats with an Excel sheet and a Post-it note.

Cost-benefit? Benefits yes, costs definitely -- and coordination... well...

On paper, the DVS could be an efficiency miracle: - common standards\

• interoperable systems\
• modern services

In reality, however, the population mainly gets one thing:
A puzzle called "Where is my digital government service hiding?"

53% of the population complain that they cannot find digital services. This is remarkable, because Swiss administration now offers about as many digital services as an average toaster.

And yes, money is being spent -- a lot of it. Only the benefits remain remarkably well camouflaged.

Is federalism still relevant in the global digital world?

Honest answer?
The way it's currently designed: no.
Federalism is fantastic for culture, democracy and regional identity.
But for digital scaling, it's about as suitable as a bag of marmots for running a data center.

The DVS is indeed a necessary attempt to dampen this system error -- but without real enforcement it remains a toothless tiger:
Roar loudly, move little.

What would need to happen?

• Uniform standards that are not just recommended, but mandatory.\
• More courage for central solutions -- without losing the federal soul.\
• Less PowerPoint, more product.\
• Less politics, more technology.\
• And an administration that doesn't celebrate itself for moving a button from left to right.

Conclusion

The DVS is not bad -- it's simply not good enough to solve a structural problem that's deeply embedded in Swiss DNA code.
Without bold reforms, it remains a digital consolation prize for a country that actually has the potential to be European top class.
But currently it doesn't even reach solid middle class.

Switzerland deserves to be better than "administrative Middle Ages in a beautiful Alpine panorama".