Referendums

Swiss citizens have the widest range of political rights in the world, which are exercised in particular by way of quarterly referendums. But these referendums are really just the tip of the iceberg, as the impact of these broad political rights goes far beyond the results obtained in these periodic votes. The implicit impact that these rights exert on everything that is legislated/decided but does not need to be referended is even significantly greater and larger. The first chapter illustrates and explains how and why.

Thanks to this first ingredient of the recipe the “sovereign” of Switzerland is the citizenry, at all times and in relation to all laws and/or decisions of the state that affect the community life.

And it is through this mechanism that the country obtains/has access:

• to the best body of laws imaginable – whether in terms of legitimacy, comprehensiveness, and clarity, as well as in terms of the citizenry’s understanding/respect of them.
• to “force” the political class to warrant preferential and permanent attention to the interests of the majority of the citizenry – instead of power games, and doctrinaire interests related to the “politics of politics”.
• for all people to be educated, trained and able to develop a very high level of civic culture, capacity and maturity – independent of their socio-economic level and/or place of residence.
• to have political agendas at each of the three levels of the state with the highest relevance to the respective citizenry, always up to date, and “clean” of stagnant and/or extreme issues.
• to experience electing representatives to governments and parliaments, as well as who the elected people are, as an event of secondary importance to the people.
  
  

> second ingredient