vote.org

Switzerland's Initiatives

A list of Switzerland's current initiatives

Swiss government server

Political Rights in the Federation

Direct Democracy in Switzerland

Excerpts from Direct Democracy in Switzerland

By Gregory A. Fossedal, Chairman, Alexis de Tocqueville Institution

Forward by Alfred R. Berkeley III, vice-chair, NASDAQ

"More than half its [the Swiss Constitution's] provisions, as of the late 20th century, were derived from popular ballot initiatives or referenda voted on directly by the people." Pg X

Recent Email from a Swiss Citizen

Hi Mr. Ravitz,

thank you for your interest in direct democracy.

In Switzerland we do vote about tax increases/decreases, tax system, prisons, nuclear powerplants, rail-systems, foreign-politics, international treaties, the finances of our villages, counties, country, salary of our members of parliament, protection of our landscape. I hope, one day everyone on this planet does have similar rights and possibilities.

The Initiative is very popular in switzerland and quite often, when we have to vote about a more popular theme, the turnouts are very high, by our standards (40%-50%) [up to 72% recently]. But only a minority of the Initiatives have ever been successful. Though, the majority of them had massive influence in regular politics. The referendums have often been used to block some unwanted governmental activities and some international treaties, of which people had to fear major disadvantages (more traffic from the EU etc...)

How the Swiss Voted

How the Swiss Voted on national issues since 1848! (The official Swiss Government site- French, German, Italian and Romansch only!)

A better way to vote - The Economist 9/11/93

The Economist of London 9/11/93 on direct democracy and its success in Switzerland

A better way to vote: Why letting the people themselves take the decisions is the logical next step for the West

by Brian Needham, associate editor of The Economist and its foreign editor from 1964 to 1989.

THE difference between today's politics and the politics of the coming century is likely to be a change in what people mean by "democracy": to be precise, a radical change in the process by which the democratic idea is put into practice.

The collapse of communism, everybody agrees, removes the ideological framework that has shaped the politics of the 20th century. One of the two great rival bodies of ideas has been defeated, and the other will be transformed by the consequences of its victory. This does not mean that the world is now wholly non-ideological; there will be other ideas in the name of which politicians will call upon people to follow them into the good fight. But the end of communism, and of the special sort of confrontation it produced, both reinforces the need for a change in the way democracy works and, at the same time, gets rid of a large obstacle in the path to that change.