ABSTRACT
Despite the fact that Switzerland is so much smaller, the development of Swiss educational institutions is much harder to describe and analyze than those of Germany and Japan. Jansen and Stone emphasize that the samurai realized that mass education was necessary for shoring up national power and wealth. In Japan, the central government in 1877 established the University of Tokyo, both as the first Imperial University and as a platform for remodeling the educational system from the top down. The contrast between the "top-heavy" Japanese and the "bottom-heavy" Swiss political structures had striking influence on the education system. During the thirty-year period from 1866 the ad hoc alliances including the Catholics cantons were able to defeat no fewer than fourteen constitutional referenda, among them several crucial ones on educational issues. Symbolic of the reasons for this was that the Swiss thrust to give their Federal government greater educational authority was abruptly halted.
