The residents of many countries which are comparable to Switzerland all have access to more or less the same types of public services. However, how services are provided varies widely. Health care in the UK, for example, is provided by the National Health Service, but to a large degree in Switzerland, health care is provided by the cantons and communities. Swiss cantons play a central role in education; in France, it is far more centrally organized. The key to understanding how public services

more »

... re provided lies in how a country is territorially organized. As a rule in federalist countries, the middle level plays a larger role, potentially at the expense of the communities or of the central state. In unitary countries, by contrast, more tasks are performed directly by the central state, but there are also countries like Denmark or Sweden, where the communities play a very important role. One also needs to take the relationship between different levels into account. In dual systems, one of the two levels is wholly responsible for a given task and how it is regulated, financed, and implemented, while