The Italian historian Gaetano Salvemini wrote more than half a century ago: "The history of all mixed territories in Europe, with the exception of Switzerland, is the history of hatreds and brutality." This readable book, Direct Democracy in Switzerland (Transaction Press, $39.95, 287 pages) by Gregory A. Fossedal with a preface by former Amb. Richard Holbrooke, documents the Swiss achievement, extraordinary as one looks around at the death and destruction in the Balkans, let alone in Africa. Switzerland is a miracle. With few physical resources, pervasive religious, cultural and linguistic divisions, it is a model of social tranquility, probably the world's most successful economies, and an enterprising democracy with startlingly high voter participation. Asked to define a nation, Ernest Renan the French philosopher, replied tersely: "A daily plebiscite" (or, as he put it, "un plebiscite de tous les jours"). Switzerland exemplifies that definition. As the author points out, Switzerland lives under a system of direct democracy in which the voters, by referendum and initiative, vote directly on a large number of policies. Under this system of federalism, the last legislative word is that of small units of government — cantons, communities — rather than the legislature or city council. And to ensure national security, every male is a member of the Swiss army until age 48. Mr. Fossedal, chairman of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, has done a remarkable study of Swiss direct democracy and its possibilities as a model for the United States as well as newly emerging countries. Arnold Beichman, a Hoover Institution research fellow, is a columnist for The Washington Times. |
