Switzerland Communities

The community , commune ( fr. Commune , Ger. Gemeinde , ital. Comune ) is the administrative unit of Switzerland , which is part of the canton . As of 2011, there are 2,551 communities in Switzerland. ^[one]

Every Swiss citizen is primarily a citizen of his community, then a citizen of his canton, and only then a citizen of the Swiss Confederation. The Swiss tax system is also built accordingly - each citizen pays 3 different income taxes: one to the budget of the Confederation, the second to the budget of the canton, and the third to their own commune; accordingly, the taxes of two citizens living in neighboring houses and having the same income can vary considerably due to their residence in different communities.

The largest communities of Switzerland are communities of the cities of Zurich , Geneva , Basel , Bern and Lausanne , with more than 100 thousand inhabitants each; Winterthur , St. Gallen and Lucerne - more than 50 thousand each. 111 communes, where more than 10 thousand people live, have the status of cities. The least populated commune as of 2004 was Coryppo ( Italian Corippo ) in the canton of Ticino , with only 17 inhabitants.

In large communes there is a communal parliament and a communal government (their names vary depending on the region). In turn, the role of parliament in smaller communes can be played by a meeting of all citizens who have the right to vote, and the role of the government is a specially hired manager (sometimes working part-time or on a voluntary basis).