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I live in Switzerland as well and wouldn't agree that direct democracy works much better than representative democracy. You can certainly argue that it does but

by tsbinz 7y ago

I live in Switzerland as well and wouldn't agree that direct democracy works much better than representative democracy. You can certainly argue that it does but it's far from obvious IMO. There's less focus on lobbying and more focus on spreading FUD about other parties' proposals, people have no time to investigate consequences of proposals so they rely on what they read in political ads, see on tv, etc. Men were voting that women shouldn't be allowed to vote as recently as 1990(!) in one part of Switzerland. I can't say it's worse than other systems, but it's also far from obvious to me that it's better.

bboygravity 7y ago
Have you ever tried living in another country / watching the political news in other countries?
- kmlx 7y ago
  what about japan? about 60 times bigger than switzerland and they seem to have it quite good for quite some time.
  - glandium 7y ago
    Japan is not a direct democracy.
    - kmlx 7y ago
      exactly. you don't have to be a direct democracy to be successful.
- tsbinz 7y ago
  I've lived in countries with representative democracies (Germany, Austria) as well, yes.
atemerev 7y ago
Well, the case you are talking about is a few tiny villages who decided that they could keep their "tradition" way into modernity, but even they yielded to the pressure of the rest of the Swiss society.
Uhuhreally 7y ago
could you (and the parent if possible) comment on the role the canton system plays in direct democracy ?