Direct Legislation by the Citizenship through the Initiative and Referendum | Page 2

a few statistics and opinions from an English magazine
or two, and some excerpts from volumes by De Laveleye and Freeman
which contained chapters treating of Swiss institutions. Soon after, as a
result of my observations in the country, I contributed, under the
caption "Republican Switzerland," a series of articles to the New York
"Times" on the Swiss government of today, and, last April, an essay to
the "Chautauquan" magazine on "The Referendum in Switzerland." On
the form outlined in these articles I have constructed the first three
chapters of the present work. The data, however, excepting in a few
cases, are corrected to 1892, and in many respects besides I have
profited by the labors of other men in the same field.
The past two years and a half has seen much writing on Swiss
institutions. Political investigators are awakening to the fact that in
politics and economics the Swiss are doing what has never before been
done in the world. In neighborhood, region, and nation, the entire
citizenship in each case concerned is in details operating the

government. In certain cantons it is done in every detail. Doing this, the
Swiss are moving rapidly in practically grappling with social problems
that elsewhere are hardly more than speculative topics with scholars
and theorists. In other countries, consequently, interested lookers-on,
having from different points of view taken notes of democratic
Switzerland, are, through newspaper, magazine, and book, describing
its unprecedented progress and suggesting to their own countrymen
what in Swiss governmental experience may be found of value at home.
Of the more solid writing of this character, four books may especially
be recommended. I mention them in the order of their publication.
"The Swiss Confederation." By Sir Francis Ottiwell Adams and C.D.
Cunningham. (London: Macmillan & Co.; 1889; 289 pages; $1.75.) Sir
Francis Ottiwell Adams was for some years British Minister at Berne.
"The Federal Government of Switzerland: An Essay on the
Constitution." By Bernard Moses, Ph.D., professor of history and
political economy, University of California. (Pacific Press Publishing
Company: Oakland, Cal.; 1889; 256 pages; $1.25.) This work is largely
a comparative study of constitutions. It is meant chiefly for the use of
students of law and of legal history. It abounds, however, in facts as to
Switzerland which up to the time of its publication were quite
inaccessible to American readers.
"State and Federal Government of Switzerland." By John Martin
Vincent, Ph.D., librarian and instructor in the department of history and
politics, Johns Hopkins University. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press;
1891; 247 pages; $1.50.) Professor Vincent had access, at the
university, to the considerable collection of books and papers relating
to Switzerland made by Professor J.C. Bluntschli, an eminent Swiss
historian who died in 1881, and also to a large number of government
publications presented by the Swiss Federal Council to the university
library.
"The Swiss Republic." By Boyd Winchester, late United States
Minister at Berne. (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co.; 1891; 487
pages; $1.50.) Mr. Winchester was stationed four years at Berne, and
hence had better opportunity than Professor Vincent or Professor

Moses for obtaining a thorough acquaintance with Switzerland. Much
of his book is taken up with descriptive writing, all good.
Were I asked which of these four works affords the fullest information
as to new Switzerland and new Swiss political methods, I should be
obliged to refer the inquirer to his own needs. Professor Moses's is best
for one applying himself to law and constitutional history. Professor
Vincent's is richest in systematized details and statistics, especially
such as relate to the Referendum and taxation; and in it also is a
bibliography of Swiss politics and history. For the general reader,
desiring description of the country, stirring democratic sentiment, and
an all-round view of the great little republic, Mr. Winchester's is
preferable.
In expanding and rearranging my "Times" and "Chautauquan" articles,
I have, to some extent, used these books.
Throughout this work, wherever possible, conservatives, rather than
myself, have been made to speak; hence quotations are frequent. The
first drafts of the chapters on Switzerland have been read by Swiss
radicals of different schools, and the final proofsheets have been
revised by a Swiss writer of repute living in New York; therefore
serious error is hardly probable. The one fault I myself have to find
with the work is its baldness of statement, rendered necessary by space
limits. I could, perhaps more easily, have prepared four or five hundred
pages instead of the one hundred and twenty. I leave it rather to the
reader to supply comparison and analysis and the eloquent comment of
which, it seems to me, many of the statements of fact are worthy.
J.W.S.

THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM IN SWITZERLAND.
Democratic versus Representative Government.
There is a radical difference between a democracy and a representative