Welcome to the Institut Constant de Rebecque!

Never before has the world seemed so integrated and promising. The liberation of human energies in nations previously isolated, regimented, and closed challenges the conventional distribution of wealth and power. With or without Western investors' help South-East Asia, China, India, Latin America and Eastern Europe show expansion rates that are multiples of those on the Old Continent.

Switzerland belongs to the greatest beneficiaries of that trend. Which economy can boast such wealth invested abroad relative to its gross domestic product? Where else can such a flourishing export economy be found? In which other country is there so much prosperity and so little unemployment, such low interest rates in the absence of inflation? Where else do people enjoy such large individual savings?

But there is a but. Continental European societies show signs of running out of steam, and Switzerland is no exception. Despite a leading, innovative position– in life sciences, financial services and high technology – Switzerland has been falling behind in every rating of competitiveness and economic freedom. Government spending, the tax burden and public debt increase at an alarming rate. Social dependency reaches 30 per cent of annual wealth production, regulatory bodies add over 4000 pages of legislation every year.

The political parties' intellectual weakness is reflected in increasing disillusion and high rates of voter abstention. And business lobbies seem to fight without success this apparently inevitable trend. The drift goes on and crystallizes through the public administration, subsidized non-governmental organizations, public schools, and the state-financed advisory and research industry.

Institutional opposition to change in collectivized pension systems reduces more and more the freedom of younger generations. Centralizing tendencies at continental level, persistent pressure on the financial centre, and the uninterrupted expansion of fiscal improvidence all underline the urgency of recognizing the humane alternative.

Liberty has been celebrated and lost before. A free society can only sustain itself if the principles on which it is founded are recognized and respected. What Switzerland must rediscover is the compass needed to withdraw in an orderly manner from the blind alley of “tax and spend” policies in order to make a free society an intellectual adventure capable of stimulating the imagination and spawning enthusiasm.

We warmly invite you to explore our site and join us in this venture.

The Executive Committee

See also: Activities Mission and philosophy Tradition Organization