SWITZERLAND- IS IT A PERFECT DEMOCRACY?

Greta Beer,daughter of a jewish textile factory owner was rejected numerous times by Swiss banks regarding her family bank accounts after the war. She testify against them in 1996 for wiping the accounts held by holocaust victims. It forced major banks like UBS and Credit Suisse to pay $1.25 billion back to their families.A 1997 investigation by Bergier found out Switzerland was responsible for handling 76% German gold.This is one of the examples of Swiss profiting and exploiting from the war.

Switzerland,conquered by Napoleon and after declared neutral in 1815 by major European powers to act as a buffer zone is now the one of the richest countries.Due to its powerful banking system and economy it is topping many rankings by OECD and other economic research groups and is home to more than 800k millionaires among the population of just 9million. Considered a tax haven due its lower tax rates and secrecy laws this alpine nation has a unique way to see democracy.

Constitutional and political structure

Swiss federation is a federal republic of 26 cantons(like a state)-20 full cantons and 6 demicantons.Switzerland constitution is based on three principles of

• Decentralization
• Federalism
• Direct democracy

Its cantons have their own constitution and even tax system and consists of more than 2000 communes. Switzerland federal government is responsible for only 30% of federal budget crediting to the highly decentralized power structure.

The noteworthy thing about Switzerland is that it follows Consociatnalism originally discussed by Arend Lijphart. It is power sharing among elites of different groups to keep democracy stable even with linguistical differences. Switzerland has multiparty system and has 4 major parties.

*Taken from research paper by Wolf Linder and Isabelle Stephen about ethnic structure and power sharing in switzerland

Switzerland consists of two houses.One being the National council containing 200 seats elected by people once every 4 years and Council of States containg 46 seats,2 for full cantons and 1 for demicantons.Both houses together form the legislature of Switzerland.

The Federal Council consists of 7 members with their own portfolio and have equal power making Switzerland a collegial body meaning no executive head.7 members have to be from 4 major winning parties by formula coined in 1959 about 2+2+2+1(not compulsary) making it one of the primary feature in swiss consociatnalism and giving major rights to minority political parties.

President is selected for 1 year just for foreign representation.

Cantons have power to veto any decision when in majority

This structure of Federal council and major representation of minority political parties give Switzerland a unique democracy.

Popular vote over protests

The feature provided by Swiss to its citizen to have popular vote over any issue

Referendum

People can issue a referendum by obtaining 50k signatures to challenge any law passed under 100 days of its passage.More than 550 referendums have been held in switzerland

For a referendum to pass it should have clear majority In popular vote and majority of cantons

Power of direct democracy in switzerland

Initiatives

People can propose their laws to the government by getting 100k signatures and government have to take the law into consideration.

Recall

6 cantons give powers to recall government officials if people are not happy

Landsgemeinde

People gather in communes or Cantonal level elections to discuss laws and pass them by raise of hands.It is still practiced in Switzerland.

This is interesting view of Switzerland democracy where people have power in every level of democracy directly

Maintenance of democracy

This form of direct democracy needs maintenance to make this process efficent

• Education

Obviously education is most important as educated citizens are needed in proper decision making.Civic education in school is mandatory for 2-3 hours per week regarding political awareness.

• Politicians

Due to high decentralization among sub national and commune level smooth decisions making is prominent and politicians in switzerland work 2 jobs considering politics as a service

• Awareness

Major debates and news are constantly on air with any new referendum or initiative

Arena is a show in switzerland that show debates from both sides regarding any law.

In favour ot this say AYE

• In direct democracy there is high level of transparency in the system and each vote carries equal weight and high provisions for recalls and public mood make country stable.

*transparent countries

• It increases political awareness among citizen that lead to high quality of politicians and voters.

• Various Organisations and Unions have power over the system and instead of frequent protests referendums are held making political violence negligible
• Study by Lorenz Blume, Jens Müller, Stefan Voigt regarding economic effects in direct democracy proves there is need for less welfare in countries with direct democracy

Not in favour of this say nay

• Low voter turnout-More than 150 years and hundreds of initiatives and referendums voter turnout is decreasing each year.People in switzerland have to vote 4 times a year average creating less participation each year.This is known as voter fatigue and is more common than ever.

• Make passage of important decision tricky-Many Organisations,Unions,group and political parties with constant referendums make decision making less effective.It also creates more doubts and polarisation among people.
• Harsh decisions-In Switzerland women got right to vote in 1971 after being rejected by popular vote several times.
• Minority and immigrant relation-The constitution of Switzerland was designed in 1848 keeping in mind about ethnicity of that time making federal council seat to Germans,French and Italians but now 20% population of Switzerland is of foreign descent creating distress among minority by low representation in constitution and majority keeping control of popular vote creating flawed system.

On 7th match switzerland ban face coverings in public by popular vote gaining 50.1% vote due to “stop extremism” campaign by leading right wing party svp

These decisions make Switzerland laws stricter with immigration

• International relations and law-Research study by distal,jorg Michael,champod,Marc suggest unhealthy relation with international law and Swiss direct democracy as certain complaints had been made regarding policies unfavorable to the Islam population in switzerland.Switzerland also has complicated relationships with EU as it does not agree with its economic and immigration policies and constant rejection by Swiss citizens to enter Switzerland in EU.Common people also have less international policies knowledge making it uninformed.

• Cantons can overturn any decision- In switzerland even with popular vote council of states can overturn any decision.The problem is unequal distribution of canton population making 13 smallest cantons with just 11% population overturn any decision made by other 89%
• People become individualistic-Many cantons in Switzerland have really low amount of direct taxes and even corporate taxes because people obviously don’t want to have more taxes making switzerland one of the lowest taxed country in Europe.This problem effects banking policies making Switzerland a tax haven for rich and let Swiss rich with ridiculous taxation policies.

• Expensive- the expense of elections and voting can be proved expensive. However with more digitization these are now more accessible and easy.

• Organisations exploitation-Switzerland have leading industries including pharmaceutical and banking that have power in politics and Unions making it easy for them to gain signatures and challenging bills for initiating laws in their favour
• Digitisation-The studies found that electronic signature collecting could lead to an excessive number of public votes, potentially overburdening the Swiss political system.

Effect

Even with problems this is closest to the perfect democracy.Many good features are adopted through Swiss system as now referendums are more common in Europe than ever.

India

India can surely adopt many of the features in Swiss democracy.Even though with linguistical and cultural diversity mixed with population in India this system can be really tedious but local governments and panchayats can adopt the system of direct democracy creating political awareness and power distribution among locals.Large scale referendums could be held for controversial law and more recalls should be provided if people are not happy with the government.