"Neither dynasty, nor language, nor religion brought about a Swiss national identity that could bolster a Swiss political nation. Instead, modern Switzerland seems in an important sense the result of its inhabitants' own decisions - a Willensnation, a nation resting on its inhabitants' will - and of its own and its neighbours' willingness to accept its various forms through the centuries as a single and continuous political unit."—
Clive H. Church and Randolph C. Head