150 years of experiences with Direct Democracy Insights and lessons which might be learned from the national, regional and local level in Switzerland

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150 years of experiences with Direct Democracy
Insights and lessons which might be learned from
the national, regional and local level in
Switzerland

• Workshop at the Conference on Direct
  Participative Democracy in Sent Sadurni
• 11th of November 2006
• by Andreas Gross (Switzerland)
• Atelier pour la Démocratie Directe à St-Ursanne
  (JU/CH) and Swiss MP/PACE
• www.andigross.ch info_at_andigross.ch

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Switzerland has the richest national experiences
with Direct Democracy but it has not invented
it

• New England States in the US had the first
  constitutional referenda (18th)
• JM Condorcet , 1791/1793, Constitutional drafts
  during the French Revolution
• French utopian socialists, early 19th,and
  German 1848ers from the Rhineland

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Switzerland was a fruitful (pre-modern) ground
for the ideas of modern Direct Democracy

• Pre-modern municipal Referendum traditions in GR
• Pre-modern traditions of assembly decision
  making
• Tradition of decentralised power structures
• (Federalism as sister of DD - Autonomy is a
  asymmetrical form of federalism)
• No feudal power - politics issue of citizens
• Social, cultural and economic variety
• Multi-polar and competitive (big)
  power-structures
• Weak central power on national level - regions
  are like political laboratories

4
The Swiss DD is a product of the opposition - a
democratic peoples movement between 186o and 1890

• The majority of the founding fathers of modern
  Switzerland were 1848 elitist
• (The belongings of the people are so important
  that they can not belong to the people)
• Oldest real representative Democracy in Europe
  (1848)
• The Parliament did not really represent the
  people only a representation of the privileged
  (OREG Plutocracy)
• Its key to success The oblig. constitut.
  Referendum existed already since 1848, partially
  since 1833/1803

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The closer you come to the citizens the more
Direct Democracy you have

• National CR CI LR
  (TrR)
• Regional CR CI LR LI ConR FincR SingI
• Municipal CR CI LR LI ConR FincR SingI

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Direct Democracy became the key element of the
political system and the Swiss political culture

• 3 or 4 times a year the citizens participate in
  issue voting
• They are used to vote on issues on all 3 levels,
  2 to 5 issues per level (Total 7 - 15 issues per
  time)
• This changes the publics sphere (s) More open,
  more pluralistic, more controversial
• It creates a sense of belonging of the
  citizens
• Switzerland integrates a multivariable society
  by open participation rights for all (exception
  The non-Swiss)

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The best lessons to be taken from the Swiss DD
experience (I)

• Citizen friendly design is possible and works
  (Low signature requirement, free gathering,
  cooperative structure with the Parliament, no
  majority quorums, no issue restrictions, no
  financial limits)
• Dont exclude anybody or anything from DD
  process
• Decentralised power (The country who gives most
  powers to the regions and communes, even taxes)
• Citizens are able to decide, you should not
  underestimate them

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The best lessons to be taken from the Swiss DD
experience (II)

• Do not rush Participating, deliberations,
  negotiations, interactions need time The faster
  you go, the less you get out of it
• A NO is more than a NO It is often partially
  also a yes, or sometimes a not yet
• The Swiss learnt to loose, because they may
  always try again
• The problem of the level of participation is not
  quantitative but qualitative The less
  participate, the less those who do are
  representative for all (the better they are off,
  the more they do)

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The best lessons to be taken from the Swiss DD
experience (III)

• In a DD every issue has to find its own
  majority
• Thats why DD influences also the ID system, the
  way the government functions and is composed
• Because of DD, the Parliament is more open and
  less organised
• Many In and Ref are also born in the Parliament
  by its minorities
• DD also democratises the electoral system for
  the Parliament (Panasch/Kumulation)

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The more citizens may participate - the more
carefully public money is spent

• An argument which may help to create political
  coalitions for the introduction of DD
• Politicians know, they can not spend money
  without the consent of the majority of the
  citizens
• This has an effect on all political matters You
  can not be generous to culture or foreigners if
  the citizens feel badly treated socially or
  economically
• Politicians have to care about the people and
  all interests and items

11
DD creates more conflicts and a certain conflict
culture

• Conflicts are natural children of freedom and
  have nothing to do with violence (The worse
  Democracy is the more they are solved violently)
• This is a paradox in Switzerland, because with
  its small and agrarian society it is afraid to
  have conflicts and prefers to avoid them

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The binary structure of DD (only Yes or No)
-the primitive side of Democracy- can be opened
and improved

• DD is an ongoing and never ending process
• In a cooperative design of DD the Parliament has
  the option of Counterproposals which offers a 3
  options vote
• People may vote 3/4 times a year on 5/6 issues
  and may come back on similar questions within 2/3
  years This allows permanent adjustments of once
  taken decisions

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If you really want to learn lessons about DD in
CH, you also have to learn, what you can not
learn in CH

• The social and political infrastructure of DD
  in CH is very weak (No public funding for
  parties, no support for active citizens, weak
  parliaments, weak citizen political education
  efforts)
• Lack of sensitivity for the need of a fair
  process of DD (Transparency of the money
  involved, no efforts to balance the chances in
  the public decision making process)
• Too many people are excluded (21 foreigners,
  too many obstacles to become Swiss citizen)

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Analytical errors or misunderstandings about DD
in Switzerland

• The Swiss women did not get their participate
  rights because of DD (in Oregon it was the newly
  introduced DD which led by a initiative 1914 to
  the womens democratic rights
• Its not because of DD that Switzerland is not
  (yet) member of the European Union (N has no DD)
• Democracy is a human right, not a national
  privilege