Switzerland's government, parliament, and courts are organized on three levels: <span>federal, cantonal (based on 26 cantonal constitutions), <span>communal (in a few small cantons and in some 2500 small villages reunions of all citizens are held instead of cantonal and communal parliaments; local courts are usually common to several communities)</span></span>
The federal constitution in principle reserves the areas of foreign relations, the army, customs examinations and tariffs, value added taxes and the legislation on currency, measure and weight, railways and communications to the confederation. On the other hand, only the cantons (and some major cities) do have armed police forces, run hospitals and universities (with the exception of two federal institutes of technology). Legislation on public schools is made by the cantons, resulting in 26 different education systems, but the public schools are actually run by the communes, much like many other public services (like water supply and garbage collection). The confederation, the cantons and the communes do collect income taxes to finances their affairs.
When it comes to the details, everything is just a little bit more complex in Switzerland's political system, however, because in almost any field of state activity federal legislation does try to establish a minimal amount of national standard on one side while leaving a respectable amount of self-determination to cantons and communes on the other side. A majority of the electorate does reaffirm this basic principle of Swiss politics over and over again - by rejecting centralistic laws and accepting federalist laws in referendums.
