Is Switzerland a perfect democracy?

Published on : 01/12/2024 – 3:09 p.m.

1 min

The idea of ​​voting directly for each major law in your country – such as universal income, PMA for all or the removal of article 49-3 of the Constitution – is a dream for more than one French person. . For the Swiss, this is a reality. Every year, the Helvetians go to the polls four times a year to participate directly in referendums, the “popular votes”.

ENTR was interested in the Swiss legislative system, which is based on both representative democracy and direct democracy. If the young people interviewed seem very attached to the various referendums (optional, compulsory and popular initiative), it seems that participation is not always in the electoral meetings, to the point of putting the legitimacy of the results into perspective.

Is Swiss democracy a model to follow? To answer this, ENTR interviewed political scientist Hans-Peter Schaub and professor of political science at the University of Geneva Pascal Sciarini.