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The Swiss. They have a strong currency as well. Hmm, wonder if not becoming a part of the EU has anything to do with it?
by digitalengineer 13y ago
The Swiss. They have a strong currency as well. Hmm, wonder if not becoming a part of the EU has anything to do with it?
- bayesianhorse 13y agoThis is a dangerous misunderstanding. If I wanted to have a one-party cleptocracy on the cheap, I would hold tons of referendums. Putin for example should clearly do this more often. And because most people have the same misconceptions that you have, they will celebrate him as the best-ever democrat! One problem is that referendums have to follow a very detailed process to actually mean something. As can be seen in the Crimea. Putin essentially asked down the barrel of a tank: "Do you want to join?" Of course he was somewhat more subtle, but in essence... In Switzerland severely different conditions prevail. It's a small country with around 10 million inhabitants, quite a few of that non-voters. Try doing a referendum every couple of months with dozens of millions of voters! The potential for abuse abounds! And then, don't think that referendums will be about important or at least relatively sane issues. No, no, most moderate parties are content with the way parlemantary democracy works. The referendums will be issued by the most right-wing and most left-wing parties there are, with each crack-pot idea becoming at least marginally possible for a time. In Switzerland there is the "concording principle", which tries to remedy some of that uncertainty and chaos. Try that in France, Germany or Italy...
- guard-of-terra 13y agoPutin has successfully replaced referendums with opinion surveys and polls. For everything he does, he has a survey to back it up (he is free to ignore surveys on questions he doesn't like, tho).