Because post-Napoleonic Switzerland has again organized as a confederation of sovereign states united only for common defense and the maintenance of internal order, the formulation and execution of a united foreign policy remains impossible.

In addition, the Swiss are separated by legal barriers, because each canton has its own laws, currency, postal service, weights and measures, and army.

The right to reside freely in any canton has also ended with Napoleon's Mediation Act, and therefore the inhabitants of each canton regard the inhabitants of the other cantons as nationals of different countries.

Furthermore, civil liberties are almost nonexistent, and religious differences reappear.