Direct Legislation by the Citizenship through the Initiative and Referendum | Page 4

the constitution; enactment
of all laws; imposition of direct taxes; incurrence of state debts and
alienation of public domains; the granting of public privileges;
assumption of foreigners into state citizenship; establishment of new
offices and the regulation of salaries; election of state, executive, and
judicial officers.[A]
[Footnote A: J.M. Vincent: "State and Federal Government in
Switzerland."]
The programme for the meeting is arranged by the officials and
published beforehand, the law in some cantons requiring publication
four weeks before the meeting, and in others but ten days. "To give
opportunities for individuals and authorities to make proposals and
offer bills, the official gazette announces every January that for
fourteen days after a given date petitions may be presented for that
purpose. These must be written, the object plainly stated and
accompanied by the reasons. All such motions are considered by what
is called the Triple Council, or legislature, and are classified as
'expedient' and 'inexpedient.' A proposal receiving more than ten votes
must be placed on the list of expedient, accompanied by the opinion of
the council. The rejected are placed under a special rubric, familiarly
called by the people the Beiwagen. The assembly may reverse the

action of the council if it chooses and take a measure out of the 'extra
coach,' but consideration of it is in that case deferred until the next year.
In the larger assemblies debate is excluded, the vote being simply on
rejection or adoption. In the smaller states the line is not so tightly
drawn.... Votes are taken by show of hands, though secret ballot may be
had if demanded, elections of officers following the same rule in this
matter as legislation. Nominations for office, however, need not be sent
in by petition, but may be offered by any one on the spot."[B]
[Footnote B: Vincent.]
The Initiative and the Referendum.
It will be observed that the basic practical principles of both the
communal meeting and the Landsgemeinde are these two:
(1) That every citizen shall have the right to propose a measure of law
to his fellow-citizens--this principle being known as the Initiative.
(2) That the majority shall actually enact the law by voting the
acceptance or the rejection of the measures proposed. This principle,
when applied in non-Landsgemeinde cantons, through ballotings at
polling places, on measures sent from legislative bodies to the people,
is known as the Referendum.
The Initiative has been practiced in many of the communes and in the
several Landsgemeinde cantons in one form or other from time
immemorial. In the past score of years, however, it has been practiced
by petition in an increasing number of the cantons not having the
democratic assemblage of all the citizens.
The Referendum owes its origin to two sources. One source was in the
vote taken at the communal meeting and the Landsgemeinde. The
principle sometimes extended to cities, Berne, for instance, in the
fifty-five years from 1469 to 1524, taking sixty referendary votings.
The other source was in the vote taken by the ancient cantons on any
action by their delegates to the federal Diet, or congress, these
delegates undertaking no affair except on condition of referring it to the

cantonal councils--ad referendum.
The principles of the Initiative and Referendum have of recent years
been extended so as to apply, to a greater or lesser extent, not only to
cantonal affairs in cantons far too large for the Landsgemeinde, but to
certain affairs of the Swiss Confederation, comprising three million
inhabitants. In other words, the Swiss nation today sees clearly, first,
that the democratic system has manifold advantages over the
representative; and, secondly, that no higher degree of political freedom
and justice can be obtained than by granting to the least practicable
minority the legal right to propose a law and to the majority the right to
accept or reject it. In enlarging the field of these working principles, the
Swiss have developed in the political world a factor which, so far as it
is in operation, is creating a revolution to be compared only with that
caused in the industrial world by the steam engine.
* * * * *
The cantonal Initiative exists in fourteen of the twenty-two cantons--in
some of them, however, only in reference to constitutional amendments.
Usually, the proposal of a measure of cantonal law by popular initiative
must be made through petition by from one-twelfth to one-sixteenth of
the voters of the canton. When the petition reaches the cantonal
legislature, the latter body is obliged, within a brief period, specified by
the constitution, to refer the proposal to a cantonal vote. If the decision
of the citizens is then favorable, the measure is law, and the executive
and judicial officials must proceed to carry it into effect.
The cantonal Referendum is in constant practice in all