But enough about Switzerland, all countries have plenty of skeletons in their respective closets.
The real key to peace, prosperity and the general success of humanity as a species is... more bureaucracy.
No, really, you read that right. Throughout history, the main cause of the death-spiral most civilizations (that aren't conquered by outsiders) find themselves in eventually is lack of institutional resistance to change.
For example, the Roman Empire was arguably a rather successful civilization for a number of centuries. How did this happen? Bureaucracy! The Romans practically invented the stuff, and it was the giant sticky morass singularly responsible for holding it together for four or six (I always forget which) centuries, until a lack of computerization finally did them in. Technically barbarians, but in reality it was the lack of computerization. Think the barbarians would have conquered mighty Rome if they had had to submit thirteen applications in triplicate to the Bureau of Conquering and Cultural Assimilation? Hardly. No self respecting barbarian would have had the patience for that, instead they would have wandered off to conquer other, lesser (and less bureaucratic) civs, or just hung around and played lawn darts.
Anyway, the point is, the more resistant to change of any sort a civilization is, then by definition the longer it will remain cohesive and intact. The U.S.'s founding fathers knew this, hence the beautiful system of checks and balances they wove into the fabric of our government to make it virtually impossible to effect any real change. I weep with joy at the ruthless inefficiency of our triply-redundant executive/legislative/judiciary house of mirrors, each patently incapable of accomplishing anything meaningful (aside from voting themselves pay raises), each replete with its own complex web of inherent redundancies (a bicameral house/senate--Brilliant! Allow 50 separate states to retain just as much bureaucracy as the Federal system, while simultaneously adding another 50 layers of bright-red tape to interstate interaction [commerce, law, etc] process--Brilliant!).
The wisdom of our 'fathers shall ever shield us from the inevitable fate of nations. A brief primer on how it happens in nature:
First: The Founding--some people have a relatively innocuous idea for a nation/empire/hegemony of some sort, and go about creating it (often by killing people).
Second: The Short Golden Age, wherein a few people are Actually Happy, usually at the expense of at least one other class of people who are Generally Put-Upon. Often characterized by frequent fireworks displays, and the occassional third world Police Action.
Third: The Slow But Inevitable Death Spiral of Change. More people think they have good ideas, make some changes (often by killing people), see that their changes inevitably make things worse, and the cycle continues until the splendor of the bureaucratic state has devolved into a nightmare world of chaos and change and loud yelling, often referred to as "Parliament".
Fourth: Sunset. Either another group of people have a relatively good idea for a nation/empire/hegemony and come conquer our sad example state (because they lack computerization; think: Rome, Mongols, countless Chinese Dynasties), or our heroes slowly recede into the dustbin of history in a faded state of decay and whistful meandering thoughts of lost glory and empire, and The Way Things Used To Be (think: Britain).
Change is bad! Revolution isn't the answer! Vive le Bureaucracy! Even the very word 'bureaucracy' comes from the French, and we all know how effective they are...
No politicians were harmed in the making of this post.