Comment on [Question] What just happened to 4 million posts?
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks agoSince we’re on this topic, what do you think about the referrendum/initiative process that some jurisdictions have, such as in Switzerland?
db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
I’m not familiar with it
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
In Summary:
There are 3 things:
Popular Initiatives - Swiss Citizens Collect 100,000 signatures within 18 months and the proposal is put on the ballot in the mext election. If a majority spproves, it becomes law
Legislative Referrendum - If the legislature passes a law, citizens can call for a referrendum by collecting 50,000 signatures within 100 days of the law being passed, and it goes on the ballot in the next election. If a majority disagrees with the law, it’s repealed
Mandatory Referrendums - In some situations, such as changes to the constitution, a referrendum is mandatory. A majority of the people and a majority of the Cantons (Sub-National divisions similar to States/Provinces) have to be in favor otherwise the changes wont happen.
Basically, the elected officials are more like caretakers than people with actual power. It’s not perfect tho, people could still vote in bad laws and racist/xenophobic policies.
Read more about them here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_in_Switzerland#Refer…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_popular_initiative
en.wikipedia.org/…/Mandatory_referendum_in_Switze…
db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
While this seems better than a lot of others, these types of systems are very easily manipulated by mass media, so functioning inside capitalism is already a massive problem. In any case it’s difficult to judge the efficacy, only with one rich protected nation as an example.