True Democracy: Lessons from Switzerland

Every five years or so, Britons are invited to choose which party will ignore them next. The ritual is impressive: leaflets, debates, a long night of results. Then the winners spend the following years doing largely as they please, and the public is asked to wait patiently for the next opportunity to express mild disappointment.

Switzerland does things differently. Since the nineteenth century its citizens have been able to force national votes. Collect 100,000 signatures within eighteen months and a proposed constitutional amendment goes to the people. Collect 50,000 within a hundred days of a new law passing and that law faces a referendum. The Swiss typically vote on several national questions every year, alongside many more at cantonal and local level.

The results are not chaotic. Switzerland remains one of the wealthiest, most stable and least indebted countries in Europe. Its politicians, knowing that any law may be challenged, tend to consult widely and legislate cautiously. Consensus becomes a habit rather than a slogan.

Britain, by contrast, has held just three UK-wide referendums in its history. The most recent, in 2016, produced the largest vote for anything in British history, and much of the political class then spent three years trying to find a way around it. That episode taught many voters a lesson: their opinion