Comment by jacquesm
5 years ago
I'll give you just one reason why the Swiss system is currently the best on Earth. Everywhere I go people always talk about political systems as 'they have decided x, y or z'. In Switzerland people will say 'we have decided' even when they disagree with the outcome of the vote. That's a major difference and as a result the Swiss populace is typically very well educated on the matters on which they vote. This is hard to port to other countries for many reasons but it definitely is a very big benefit.
That's also a major reason, why big infrastructure projects are usually implemented in time and (mostly) in budget.
Once a project is approved by popular vote (the Gotthard Base Tunnel[1] being a good example, but not the only one) this means that funding is secured and can't be pulled, or siphoned off due to political changes.
It's not unfalable, certainly, but works for most large projects.
Once approved it's also accepted by the "losers" and not subject to political whims
One of the most important aspects of the Swiss system is that it's not that the majority vote steamrolls the minority, but that compromise is actively thought out.
For better or for worse. Because decisions can take a long time. Overall, though, it seems to work quite well.
Note: that's a bit of an idealistic view. But I'd wager that it's mostly correct
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthard_Base_Tunnel
Spot on! Swiss have the unity that I've never seen anywhere else.
The Swiss Confederation is, in spirit, a confederation of citizens, and not of states.
From what I have learned from a comment in this same thread,
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23882816
They say We because whoever they voted for (big parties) have representation in decision making. Seven members of council consist of the party representation of whoever one voted for.
That should work for any coalition government that has to reach consensus, NL is one such and here we definitely do not say 'we'. I think it has more to do with the frequent referenda and that even if the turnout is low people are in principle allowed to vote on all these issues.
I suspect that’s more cultural than political. The UK uses coalition governments, as is typical for a parliamentary democracy, and it doesn’t seem to have the same “we have decided” spirit.
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