Switzerland's Unique (and rare) Political System Explained - VisualPolitik EN

[ghrim]

As a swiss i am indeed baffled by the fact that other countries give that much power to just one person.

[beccyvc]

And imagine seeing your politicians using public transport on a daily basis. I walked past Ueli Maurer and Simonetta Sommaruga at Bern mainstation countless times when commuting to work.

[pinkpaprika]

I’m Swiss. I definitely prefer the Swiss democracy model over the American one any time of the day. It took us 700 years to build it up, but there’s a reason why Switzerland is often asked to mediate between countries in conflict: we’ve had all that time to practice dialogue among ourselves.

[theRumbleChannel]

Pretty spot on, but leaves out some quite important parts. Per example that most decisions made by the government can be overturned be by the population through a popular referendum. Initiatives can not only come from parliament or the government, but from the people. The Federal Chancellery then has to ensure the correct procedure for popular initiatives, from the launch of an initiative to the referendum. Or any amendment to the Constitution by Parliament is subject to a mandatory referendum, i.e. it must be put to a popular vote.

[Fdsajkl]

I am from Russia and just let me cry a little bit right here 😢😢😢😢😢

[andreyhempburn]

I once was in Berne to get a Visa. I stopped by the Swiss Capitol, to have a quick glance, the square was almost empty. Suddenly a person exits alone from the building. As he came closer I realised it was Ueli Maurer, the then President of Switzerland, Alone. He passed by me about 30m distance, then a random guy in a Suit approached him, they talked for 30s then the President went into a Restaurant.
I was in DC a year before, the difference is flaberghastingnggngn

[DR-tseh]

I'm Swiss and lived in my home country as well as in various places abroad in Asia. For all my love-hate relationship I have with Switzerland, there is no denying that its political system and it's integration into the culture is the best on earth. No need to be humble here.

[BlackHawkArmamentUSA]

Switzerland is one of the best countries in Europe

[snackplissken]

I'd like to see a followup video about how power is balanced between the central government and the cantons. I hear a lot about how Switzerland lets its constituent regions govern themselves in a way that hasn't been possible in America since Senators stopped being appointed by the individual states as a check against the encroachment of federal power. In a world where massive nation states are full of regions who want to break away for political, financial, cultural, ethnic, and religious reasons, it seems we may all have something to learn from the Swiss model.

[AdrianWebb]

I've loved the Swiss system for many years, and wish we had such a balanced and equal system in the U.S. I do think in this video you might have mentioned the militia congress (keeping their day jobs) and more discussion around the referendum and initiative, and even the canton decentralization of policy (setting tax rates, etc...). To me the Swiss have the closest to perfect government on the planet, and I'm so envious.

[michaelhertig]

As a Swiss citizen, I am enthusiastic about our political system❤. The difficulty, however, is that we often have to decide against our personal advantage when voting. In other words, we have to decide in a way that benefits Switzerland as a whole and not just me personally. In this respect, it takes a certain amount of common sense to see the country as a whole and not just me.

[LifeHackTobi]

You did a great job at explaining our system, compliment. It was weird having to learn how other democracies worked when I was a child. I always asumed that the great advantage of a democracy is the willingness to compromise.

[jensumayer]

The two-party system is one of the major weaknesses for the US as it furthers partisanship instead of consensus. How do we overcome that trap? It's not like its in the constitution but the major parties have incentive to maintain it. The other weakness is that too much power is vested in the President, no matter which party the office holder is from. Committing acts of war should never be one person's decision. Too many other things also get done by executive order instead of carefully deliberated law. Congress should assert their authority as a counterweight (checks and balances - The Executive Branch is there to faithfully EXECUTE the laws passed by Congress, not to establish policy.), but has a hard time doing that in the current state of dysfunction.

[fratz]

The collegial system of the Federal Council can lead to some pretty funny situations. For example, there is a political talk show for every initiative, where representatives of as many interest groups as possible debate with each other. Half a year ago, when it came to an initiative for more climate protection, the right-wing party launched a populist campaign in which, among other things, climate change was trivialised and the demands were presented differently. Both a representative of the Federal Council and a representative of the SVP (right-wing party) were on the talk show. The representative of the Federal Council was also from the SVP, but took the principle of collegiality very seriously. The presenter thought it was a very good idea to ask the Federal Councillor whether every statement made by the SVP representative was correct. This went on for the whole programme and was really funny to watch. The looks between the two got better and better. xd

[rondamon]

Not perfect, but the best system of this world

[HHHGeorge]

I like the idea of a system of government that forces political parties to agree and prevents the concentration of power in one person or one side of politics. It would be nice if we had that in Australia but are politicians are too concerned with their or the parties interests to allow such a system to be adopted. It would mean that those in government would have to look after the interests of the people rather than themselves.

[wysslukas]

I like the video However what I find the most important missing info is that many of the described peculiarities (multiparty government, rotating presidency, to some extent the representation of linguistic regions in the executive branch) are not law but mere convention among political parties. With mostly the same laws on the governmental organisation, Switzerland had a single party occupying the majority of parliament and all of the executive for decades during the 19th century. It's the adoption of proportional elections for the national council (instead of majority elections), popular initiatives on the constitutional level and facultative popular referenda on the level of acts that forced all parties to share power without having explicit rules requiring this.

[pinkpaprika]

A couple of useful details: after WWII, the Swiss Constitution was amended to ensure that power should never become the monopoly of a single political party, or be unduly influenced by some powerful corporation or lobby.
Also, the president being co-opted among the members of the Federal Council ensures that we don’t get a president unfit for the job.

[milkakahssay]

I'm from Ethiopia, where one man can rule until they die. 😢😢😢😢

[felixniederhauser]

I missed the fact, that the Swiss citizens (not the residents who are not citizens) are voting 4 times per year to approve and/or disapprove the governments work. This is the reason, that Switzerland is not a member of the evil EU, the population is not for that. NB: I wish, that more countries would have this system of direct democracy and take away the power of some single persons like i.e. the USA.