Numa Droz
Droz, Numa
Born Jan. 27, 1844, in La Chaux-de-Fonds; died Dec. 15, 1899, in Bern. Swiss statesman.
In 1881 and 1887, Droz was president of the Swiss Confederation. His role in the diplomatic conflict between Switzerland and Germany in 1899 earned him European fame. Droz supported increased centralization in the Swiss Confederation. He introduced the term “etatism” to characterize “socialism,” interpreting the former from a bourgeois point of view as the triumph of centralism and state control over freedom and individuality.