If you want a good life, the place to be born is Switzerland: that is the conclusion of the British journal “The Economist” with its “Where-to-be-born” index. This is not the only international ranking where Switzerland occupies the top spot. However, although this might sound paradoxical, this success can also be a curse. It feeds complacency, leads to a careless use of the sources of wealth and welfare and can foster a slight arrogance. This is what Avenir Suisse competes against, with hundreds of blogs on Avenir Online, with articles, lectures, participation in panel discussions, appearances on television and radio, and, of course, above all with its “core business”, the many short and long studies. These form the basis of our information and lobbying campaigns.
We are convinced that if Switzerland wants to secure its prosperity over the long term, it must have the ambition to be economically more successful than its competitors in the globalised economy. Avenir Suisse’s most successful book yet, published in January 2013, with the programmatic title “Ideas for Switzerland” is a product of this conviction. The hope is that it will contribute at any early stage to an objective debate in Switzerland as to how to safeguard the future. And it follows the strategy of not abandoning the tried and tested, but developing and modernising those features that have been successful for the country.
Although Avenir Suisse does not, as a general principle, take part in referendum campaigns, a liberal think tank cannot watch from the sidelines while a movement of ‘enraged citizens’ emerges and sets about attacking the foundations of a free economic and social order. In the case of issues of distribution, for instance, Avenir Suisse has helped to make the discussion more objective, with sobriety and with facts and figures. It has been as consistent as possible in its market-based reasoning which is theoretically well-founded.
Finally, over the last year, Avenir Suisse has continued to intensify and broaden international cooperation, for even if Switzerland is one of the model students, it can still learn from other countries. Avenir Suisse wants to contribute to this transfer of knowledge. Switzerland needs such impetus.
