The data about administrative elites were initially collected for the research project “The Swiss elites in the 20th century: an incomplete process of differentiation?” (Les élites suisses au 20ème siècle : un processus de différenciation inachevé ?) funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation from 2007 to 2010. There are two samples of Switzerland's administrative elite positions on SWISSUbase:
1/ Senior civil servants and Federal Judges
This sample of federal administrative elites includes members of the chancellery (chancellors and vice-chancellors), secretaries-general and deputy secretaries of federal departments, all directors of offices in federal departments, members of the SNB Executive Board and members of the Federal Supreme Court. In addition, Secretaries of State from 1980 onwards are included under Office Directors since they also hold this position (n= 904 positions in the archived dataset).
2/ Members of the extra-parliamentary committees
This sample includes members of the extra-parliamentary committees, often described in the literature as a "militia administration". These are "meeting places", bringing together representatives from the political, administrative, economic, scientific, and academic spheres, as well as from the cantons. These extra-parliamentary committees began to flourish in the 1930s. It should be noted that the identities of members of extra-parliamentary committees are documented, but the collection of their biographical data and mandates is not as detailed as for senior civil servants and Federal Judges. (n = 12079 positions in the archived dataset).
Other Obelis projects about Swiss Elites can be found in SWISSUbase : Obelis Swiss Economic Elites (ref. 20815), Political Elites (ref. 20691) and Academic Elites (ref. 11687).
