ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shows how internationalization started to change this successful paradigm. Its speed and intensity thus changed the contexts in which Switzerland operated, introducing new fissures into society and politics. Indeed, Franz Steinegger, a former Radical leader, has claimed that the changes have brought the country to a condition reminiscent of the Weimar Republic. Yet because, generally, the country attracts so little attention as the paucity of books about Switzerland on the shelves of bookshops and libraries in the English-speaking world testifies these quite dramatic shifts have passed largely unnoticed outside Switzerland. In some cases, it may also be because Switzerland has managed to rub some people up the wrong way whether over its behaviour in the Second World War, its banks or its allegedly lax tax policies.
