Is this European Democracy BETTER than America's? American reacts
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to Switzerland's direct democracy
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And generally here in Europe we are not impressed with America’s so-called democracy .
In fact the best description of it comes from an American who described it as toxic tribalism
@@dalriada7554yes as far as I’m aware- and I could be wrong- but I believe Australia is the only country that has preferential voting. The US, UK, Canada - they all use first past the post which really just blows me away!
US democracy looks like a circus to Europeans, where money rules everything else.
The UK with Brexit have been trying it's best to follow the American lead on that, but things have started to calm down now that common sense is coming back lol.
I think the real problem with both countries and politics, is that governments, the media and the public get too emotional about policies, almost to the point of it being like a religion.
It's not good for the health of the country or the people in it, because it creates a us vs them mentality, which clearly rules American politics with the Democrats and Republicans and to a less degree it's the same in the UK, and it's no wonder why so many people are losing faith in the government, but the sad reality is, the people are to blame, governments, politicians are a reflection of the people in the country.
@@dalriada7554 You were quite right in your first past the post analogy , however , in the UK for instance , we have nine different parties who are elected by the system not just two .
@@steveosborne2297 yeah, there are 9 parties in the UK but there are only 2 that really matter. Tories have majority now and maybe Labour will have majority after the next election. All the other parties are just to small to have any significant impact on national decision making.
@@AlexGys9 That’s true to a certain extent but it doesn’t always happen
I slowed this video down to 0.75x to understand it but you sound drunk😂😂 like you've had 12 beers and a bottle of whisky
I slowed this video down to half speed. To me, Ryan looks like he's had a great party. I haven't laughed so much in a long time ;)
It's a hint!
@@johnalmighty2052 did the same
🤣🤣🤣 I have to do it more often
Ar .75 he sounds drunk, at .5 He sounds like he's having q stroke... 😂
😂 exactly, I did the same
I like you putting the EU flag on a video about one of the few western European countries that aren't in the EU (or EEA).
Not in the EU and EEA and a direct democracy. Not a coincidence for sure. Lucky Switzerland.
This is an American don't forget, one step at a time.😁
Switzerland is the only country in Europe that has direct democracy. A major influence is that Switzerland is a confederation of states - called cantons. At different times, different cantons were in different kingdoms/states. In most countries in Europe we have referendums - all citizens vote on very important issues. There is a referendum before joining the EU.
Its not exactly efficient...
There is a referendum before joining the EU, but what if politicians have made a deal among themselves and in the referendum the majority votes differently, as in the Netherlands and France what do they do, then they reject the will of the voter and just sign.
In a normal world it is high treason to bring your territory and population under foreign rule or to participate in it as a political active person, but with us they are still just laughing.
Do you know that in 2016 the people of the Netherlands voted in a referendum against the accession of Ukraine and also against the accession of Ukraine to NATO, no you will not know that, see here the direct democracy in action in Europe, the politicians do what they want anyway, the referendum is just show, That's all.
@@aroblucky I am Polish and our referendum is binding if 50% + one takes part in it. If it includes fewer citizens, it only creates opinions, meaning politicians can take it into account or not.
@@agnieszka7231 In the Netherlands this was also the case with 50% or more, for example the referendum on 29 May 2005 on the signing of the EU constitution, France 54.9% against and in the Netherlands much more against, or the 2016 referendum Association Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine is 61% against, but Dutch politics has had a solution for this, There are no more referendums, Welcome to the EU, you can vote as long as you vote for what politicians want, the Results are just on the internet also in Poland, go read.
That's not a good thing because the Swiss constitution is not worth the paper it's written on. The fact that the Swiss can repress religious expression by vote is disgusting
A two party system is only marginally better than a one party system.
Yes, even most authoritarian regimes employ more parties to maintain the appearance of democracy. 🙄😅
@@wanderwurst8358 Exactly!
I think its winners takes all systems.
We see it for UK as France. Many voters has none or few seats, even they are many.
So what about a system with 6-7 almost identical parties? Like in some western european countries.
Many parties gives many oppinions. They get seats and are heard. That the trick for Denmark. The Govenment has to listen to the 51%.
The debates more better decedings which are slower but are better and more permanent.
Here in Denmark we are not amputant made by Hoover, Mcarthy and Your infected lobby and senoior systems.
But they are have sometimes as ruler. But they lean and learn are. If not they get less seat.
USA - are from Bernie Sanders - has no Social Democrats. They are a SPLIT UP from Karl Marx more then 100 years ago.
They unite and us are WHOLE.
In the short version. If You treat us well we are much better workers in every. Most no strikes. We (the dountry) educate to, som we can more and more anvanced job, we wash and shave, were are polite WHEN YOU LISTEN.
The are the price. You has to pay us better and the companies has to pay. Te workers by that aols pay a lot in tax.
The tax se You are person - a ID no matter if You are rich or poor - SAME beds, same medicin, same school level and no starving even You are between jobs.
The last ones are the Socialsts. They are small with 9 seats in the.
We no far out nazis and fascits.
I REPEAT. You are eraded
USA is the only country I've EVER heard of to have an electoral college or anything like it.
It was OK when news of election results were carried on horseback and could only be collected state by state and then sent on to Washington maybe weeks later but there are better methods now.
@@frankmitchell3594Exactly, having local votes done in the state and send the result to the capital.
As early as the 1860s we had ways to quickly transfer information, so the electoral collage is more than a century out of date.
The US is not a democracy and the question of whether it is better or worse should not even be asked. In a democracy 1 person is 1 vote. In a democracy, corporations and millionaires cannot buy politicians. In a democracy, laws must be followed regardless of the subject, time or personal interests. In a democracy the majority legislates and governs.
You are mistaken. The US is a Republic, which is a form representative democracy.
Yes this present Republic system "America for sale" seems sadly lacking. IMHO a more democratic system with a couple of referendums thrown in would be very beneficial to to the majority taxpayers who are the lower wealth bracket. Or as someone once said "No taxation without representation"
I feel a distinction needs made between democratic ideas, and majority rule. If the majority viewpoint gets full control, especially when it's single largest chunk, majority, you get close to or even exceeding, half the population not considered. Viewpoints, regardless of merit are judged on popularity, compromise is disregarded beyond what is required to get slim majority. Hardly every voice heard, more, agree with the single largest viewpoint, or be quiet
@@silvertail7131 There are many many different electoral systems in the world, and the more they are explored the better you will find. My Country's system has many parties who are forced to collate together for a majority party. This gives the lesser parties some say, rather than "first past the post system" which I would never want to go back to. and good luck with it.
true. the US system of government cannot be called a democracy anymore in our day and age. it was a model of democracy when it was founded but that was around 250yrs ago and it sadly shows its age today. why? because amending the US constitution is virtually impossible nowadays. it hasn't been changed/amended since 1992, more than 30yrs ago and it is unlikely to see any change in the future. the US constitution has ossified or fossilised and is hopelessly outdated.
society is on a collision course, the rifts grow larger and it probably ends in one of two scenarios:
#1 the citizens in the US sit down, discuss and find a way to agree on a new constitution in a peaceful way or
#2 they try to go by the old one until the unease, unrest and injustice boil up to the point of civil unrest or even civil war, chaos ensues and everything breaks down, before they come up with something new and more satisfying
According to Freedom House the USA hasn't been a full democracy for at least 10 years. Tho it does still come in the upper third of flawed democracies.
Freedomhouse is still used quite often but to get a better understanding of the quality of the democracy v-dem is pretty much the gold standard today. And that for a good reason. I have worked with v-dem data and it is absolutely great. Additionally you don’t just get highly aggregated data but also all the underlying one too.
Thank you for watching about our country Switzerland, yes we voted four times or more a year for the referendums and some cantonal politicians. Swiss is not a part of EU and check out about the country switzerland in Geography now.
I'm just thinking that the day after the British election on Brexit, the most googled question in England was "What is Brexit". The day after. It went well...not. There are a lot of issues that are far too complicated for ordinary people to understand. Besides, we'd still be smoking in the pubs if this was a thing. I would have voted against a ban myself, but now I'm glad someone else was the parent in the room.
I lived for two years literally a five minute walk from the Swiss border (just outside Basel), so spent a LOT of time there. I think the main thing the Swiss should be proud of is, on the whole, they are actually responsible grown-ups- which are in pretty short supply in other countries. The system works because people take pride in their country and their future, without considering personal greed/ short-term benefits (I'm sure some people vote like that, but in general). It's a tiny country yet functions perfectly well with four official languages as well as hundreds of dialects, each canton having separate laws (like each US state), two currencies (Swiss Francs are official, but Euros are accepted in a lot of places) and being completely landlocked by the EU. It is one of the most beautiful countries on Earth (I may be biased), is overrun by tourists every year and still manages to keep everything ticking along perfectly well and in top condition.
Keep doing you, Switzerland. Never change ❤
That they accept Euros doesn’t mean they have two currencies. In Albania you can mostly pay also in USD and EUR, but the local currency is only Lek.
@@E85stattElektro My point was, they manage to use both without the massive meltdown that accompanies everyone using a Scottish sterling note (ie the SAME currency) in England.
Anyone else triggered by the EU flag in front of those Swiss voters in the thumbnail? 😆
Switzerland is not in the EU.
Btw our political system is similar ti the one in the US it was just adapted to be more direct and equal and we have no president.
A canton is a state.
Religion is free here too, the towers are not mandatory for a mosque, it’s like bell towers of a church and a Mullah yells from it for prayer.
In this day and time you ought to know what a Minarett is, especially since the US has so much going on the the middle east and especially because you say there is freedom of religion in the Us.
This is why being politically informed is so very important in a democracy.
But it is included in the Chenguen area. It is not 100% isolated from the EU. They don't belong to the EU because they want to protect the banking system and money laundering.
I notice that a lot of youtubers are using the E.U flag for everything related to 'Europe in general or some random European country . Maybe it's a type of clickbait to reach a bigger audience ?
@@CitroTeam not to be an ass but it's Schengen.
it's named after the city/town Schengen in Luxembourg where the Schengen agreement was signed by the original 5 countries, after that more countries followed and now it consist of 27 Countries covering well over 420 million people.
the way you wrote it it sounds/looks like a Chinese place.
That's true, but for the most part, the EU is seen as Europe, at least from outside of Europe and being the EU is the core power block in Europe, it's understandable why so many would see the EU as Europe, and longer term, if it keeps expanding, it very well could be.
As for the likes of Switzerland, Norway and other countries resisting EU assimilation, let's be blunt about this, these countries are not in the EU, but they might as well be, with how many rules, laws and regulations they have to follow, as well as paying into the EU pot.
Think of these countries as EU members but with a lot of op-outs, which is fine but it does put these countries at a disadvantage when it comes to rule making as they have little to no say in many of the policies that the EU create and yet these countries have to enforce them, which is a very sweet deal for the EU, not so much for the countries being ruled over.
In truth, does it really matter, we Europeans are not that different from each other at a core level, in or out of the EU.
@@CitroTeamThey simply don’t know that there is a difference and they think the flag is the European flag. It is important to know that difference.
Switzerland is not the only country in Europe that is not in the European union and the EU is also not a country.
That concept is what he probably does not understand.
Direct democracy means that it is the people themselves and not elected politicians who control which legislation applies. This also means that it is the people themselves who adopt and reject legislation.
Dictatorship of 51% against 49%... And we all know what can happen to the 5%...
And women only got the vote in 1971 in Switzerland because male voters kept rejecting it.
@@michaelgoetze2103 Yes, it was such a hole in their democracy. We were there about 50 years before on the one in Denmark.
@@michaelgoetze2103 The majority of the women just did not have any interest to vote. It is not just the males fault.
That is basically an issue with all systems. Those in power are reluctant to share that power, and will follow the legal means to keep things as they are.
Doubling the voting population means the power of your vote own gets halved.
Latest rankings I could find for this year puts Switzerland at 12, the UK at 21 and the U.S.A at 26...I think it's pretty hard to quantify but sounds about right..lol.. I'm British by the way..😊
The UK gets spanked on that ranking due to the existence of The House of Lords - which is undeniably hard to justify.
@@dufflepod I don't know that it is that hard. While I believe it should be populated in a different way, there is a trend in democracy for policies that live within the electoral terms. It's partly why the RAAC scandal has happened - because it wasn't guaranteed to fail in a political term, successive governments of all stripes since 1994 have kicked the can down the road to keep the spending off their books. An unelected second chamber that reviews and advises on policy feels like a good safeguard, though we need to organise it better
If you are interested in democratic quality i can advise you to take a look at v-dem (varieties of democracy project). Thy have great data and are pretty much the gold standard these days.
I wouldn't put much faith in lists like that. According to world population review Canada is the 7th most democratic country on Earth in 2023. What a joke.
The problem with voting online is not the safety but the fact that voting should be completely anonimous. If done online it is extremely difficult to garantee this.
Well, one result of direct democracy in Switzerland was that it was one of the last countries in Europe to adopt election rights for women. (In one Kanton only as late as 1990)
Australia is having a referendum in October to amend our constitution. We don't worship our constitution but understand it's a living document
The video also shows the big disadvantage of direct democracy. You need a majority of the population for many decisions. That makes Swiss a weird conservative country ruled by the underbelly. While female rights were respected all over Europe and the world, it took Switzerland many decades to get a majority of men to give women a right to vote.
Smaller minorities (women were a majority) have no chance in getting any rights until it's regarded as morally and internationally unacceptable to continue denying them.
Strongly opposed referendums. It scares me that everyone in hte country can vote over very complicated matters that have big concequences that hardly anyone voting is informed enough to pass their judgement on. Let the representatives of the different parties do their job, be informed about the matter, and figure it out amongst them.
I think Brexit was a good eye opener about shitty referendums. You really have to inform people what their vote is gonna mean. Today's fast paced time makes it nearly impossible.
@@Stolens87 ye but it still depends who people will believe. And some people tend to just follow the person that’s telling the most appealing story. Even though that’s an incomplete story or just plain lies.
Studies have found that the majority of people vote with their gut and not their head. People with the most extreme views are also the ones who are most motivated to vote in referendums.
The Problem is, that payed politicians often times vote in favor of companys who pay them. Democracy from the people for the people is best.
Do you work for the Chamber of Commerce?
Interesting democracy barometer. The democracy index shows the swiss at 7th and the US at 30 which seems more acurate.
Yep that is more in line what i know from what i learned at university in my political science study. Also fits better what i have seen from v-dem data. (One of my professors was part of the democracy barometer but that got obsolete when the much bigger v-dem project got startet. V-dem is the new goldstandard for measuring democratic quality)
Ryan you probably need to take a few steps back and just investigate the various democratic electoral systems.
At a basic level the difference between first past the post, preferential voting, proportional representation, the electoral college, etc.
The major issue with having so many referenda is that ordinary voters simply get exhaused with voting so often. The result is that only the most avid supporters and opposers of any question actually turn out. An average of 10 referenda per year has been normal in Switzerland over the past 50 yrs. The average turnout in recent years has been around 40 percent. The country also has the lowest general election turnout of any western European country.
.CH is the international internet identifier for Switzerland (it comes from the Latin name for the country - Confoederatio Helvetica - i.e. "The Helvetic Confederation")
A "Canton" is broadly equivalent to an individual US (or German,...) State within the national federation.
A Kanton is more some in between thing of a state and a Landkreis in Germany but probably more similar to a federal state.
It took untill 1971 before women got voting rights 😕popular voting is not always the best.
Danke! But thank for that video about my country
Beautiful country, thank you!!!
I'm austrian and I have a mixed view on swiss direct democracy. On the one hand it is certainly good for people to have more of a say, but I think the strongest argument against it is poltiical fatigue.
Just imagine if you constantly had to show up and cast votes on many different pieces of legislation... many people would just check out after a while and in the end only the most dedicated people would be voting.
Which can be either a good thing or a bad thing. In the US a bad example would be KKK members being the majority of people who show up to vote and then implementing radical policies.
I think most would agree that would be a bad thing. So it very much depends on the political outlook of the people wether or not direct democracy is a good thing. In principle I think it's a good idea, but there are certain risks associated with going down that route.
Been to a Swiss university once (only 3 days, was a workshop together with my uni) and talked with Swiss students. They seemed fairly motivated to vote, so that might not be an issue there. In general i feel like Swiss people are very grounded and would not vote for something dumb as easily as the Brits.
@@E85stattElektro Yes, as an austrian I obviously agree that swiss people are very grounded. I would even go so far as to say that they are probably even a bit friendlier than us austrians are.
But I wasn't so much focusing on switzerland in particular, because with reasonable people direct democracy can work perfectly fine.
I was more thinking of countries where there is a big chunk of the population with extreme views on many issues, in such countries direct democracy could turn ugly very quickly in my opinion.
@@E85stattElektro Yes but remember you were taking to uni students.
Referendums are held quarterly in Switzerland. So voting 4 times a year is not a major issue and most people happily participate.
@@emre05x I mean I just googled "switzerland referendums participation rate" and in 2020 the referendums were attended by anywhere between 40% at the lowest and 59% at the highest.
That's pretty below average to be honest and all I'm saying is that if it were even more common than that then people would eventually check out, obviously there is a middle ground to everything.
Imagine if the U.S had direct democracy.. They would probably vote to elect Hannibal Lecter or Santa Claus as president...
And the electors would all turn up with guns.
why is there a eu flag there for switzerland??? switzerland is not part of the eu!!!!
True but it is part of the EEA.
European
Economic
Area.
@@gerardflynn7382 no it is not! As a Swiss i can tell you with 100% certainty that Switzerland is not part of the european economic are!
Overall, direct democracy can slow down change. Swiss women only got the right to vote on the federal level in 1971. A national referendum in 1959, were obviously only men could vote, rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote. Only at a second national referendum in 1971 did this change.
yes, Direct Democracy means that you the little person get to vote on everything that needs voting that will effect you. a representative Democracy is the system there you vote on someone to represent you and they spend the time voting on things while you don't need to. these are also called Democracy and Republic and neither is inherently good nor bad, in a Democracy since it's said that most people are stupid a stupid decision can be made or even something to purposefully Ostracize other, while in a Republic you can only at best trust the one representing you do thair job and knows best even if you didn't vote for them. the U.S.A is neither a Democracy Nor a Republic, the U.S.A is a Federation of states, a Federation is a Republic with Republics in it. Both and more types of Democracies were practiced in Greece
do not mix up neutral and not armed / pacifist, most bigger neutral countries like switzerland are quite heavily armed since neutral also means that you have no friends to protect you
"Why don't we do this?" - power.
While direct democracy is far better than whatever the U.S. calls „election system“ it’s not the greatest form of democracy specially when it comes to social matters and the rights of people who don’t have the majority to decide their own rights, so a balanced system is needed to make sure majority doesn’t become an absolute force that overvotes everyone else out because it has the population to do so, also it can become a one party system very quickly, the Swiss are smarter than that but it can’t be said for all the times and places in history, that’s why there are alternatives to it.
PS Europeans also have Freedom from religion , any one forcing their religious beliefs on others are punishable with jail time.
What is hairy?!? if more then 50% of people vote on some proposel.... parliament (representatives of people) should do what? Represent the will of the people or oppose the people's will who they represent?
Democracy was invented by the Ancient Greeks approx 3,500BC.
And they invented Christianity about 3,650 years later, with the help of Judean Scribes showing an example of how to manipulate people and gain power.
If nothing else, then it was a blueprint for L. Ron Hubbard, Charles Russell and Joseph Smith.
If you do your homework on the origins, then you may agree
rather 2,500 _years ago_ = 500 BC
The letters CH stand for Confoederatio Helvetica which is the Latin version of the official name (in German Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft, French Confédération suisse, Italian Confederazione Svizzera, Romansh: Confederaziun svizra - those are the four official national languages).
The states of this federation are called cantons, but their size is in most cases more like that of a districts. The canton Basel-Land (Basel countryside) for example declared in 1832 its independence from the canton Basel (now Basel-City), because the rural population felt dominated by the citizens of the city of Basel. The biggest canton by population is Zurich (1,579,967), the smallest Appenzell-Innerrhoden (16,416; the canton Appenzell splitted in 1597 into Catholic Innerrhoden and Protestant Ausserrhoden, which has a pop. of 55,759). By area the biggest is Grisons with 7105 km2, the smallest Basel-City with 37 km2.
You should have added that they chose Latin for the abbreviation so that no language is preferred.
Bear in mind that the Swiss didnt allow women to vote until 1971.
The US version of democracy is the person with the biggest bank balance has the biggest say!.
Dude, turn down your playback speed!! For some reason it's playing too fast!
Maybe America should change its constitution to accommodate the people and the modern Society..you still have rules that are hundreds of years old ..
The right to.bare arms is outdated as not the wild west.
to clarify: the problem with the minarets isn't the structure, but the terrible noise they make.
Yes, they are really annoying. Nobody wants the Muslims to not have a place to pray, but it gets a problem if they start to annoy everyone with their praying calls.
I don’t think you understood the minaret ban. They weren’t banning mosques just the towers where the call to prayer is broadcast from five time a day. Starting at sunrise. Having lived in a Middle East country in the past I happen to love the sound but it is invasive and does take some getting used to.
As is living in hearing range of a Christian church with a bell tower.
In my case, there are even two: a Catholic church on one side, a Protestant church on the other side. And quite obviously they don't synchronize their timers and are in some kind of contest to cleanse the souls of all residents in the bigger area by noise. 😉
🤣 No further comments needed.
Unbelievable that it took that long to realize that something were wrong.
Love your videos and your attitude, keep it up! 😉
Dyftwaw?
Did you find that weird as well?
Yep, you solved it. Theriginal is in lower speed ! :-) Shit happens.
The similarities between the Swiss and the US constitution come from the fact that in 1848, when the Swiss constitution was written, the US constitution was the only non-central and federal constitution available and served as a template for the Swiss constitution.
I congratulate you for wanting to learn about life outside of your country. It's interesting to watch your surprise often at what you see. Britian does not have a fair voting system either, which is frustrating.
More Switzerland reactions pleeease
That speed was Ben Shapiro's normal speed :D :D :D
HAHAHAHAHAHA Your computer is always playing tricks on you 🤣
With all the connection issues and weirdnesses of your pc (wth lol), I would suggest for you to create a youtube playlist, and on the playlist settings(!) enable downloads. This way it automatically downloads the videos for you in the background whenever you add a video. (Requires youtube premium)
CH stands for Confederation Helvetica (Latin)
You should also check the democracy matrix of the university of Würzburg. It looks quite different. The US didn't score so well.
V-dem has probably the best data and indices for democratic quality. It’s the new gold standard
3:02 "why don't we do this?"
Because, contrary to Switzerland, you don't have freedom.
You made the ch sound german or even Swiss German. I really think you have the talent to learn some German!😊
In Denmark we have a similar voting system. We too have the 50.000 thing. Denmark and Switzerland are quite similar countries on many things❤
The USA system is not considered a Democracy, by europeans.
I call the USA system a 2-party Totalitarian Regime, very similar to the single-party totalitarian regime of the former Soviet Union. The americans changed their laws, during the 20th century, to make sure an independent or minor party could never be elected.
In my country (Portugal) we have a parliamentary system, the Portuguese Communist Party has a few votes and elects a few deputies to the parliament, but so does the fascist party "Chega". We have both communist and fascist parliamentary members, in our "Assembleia da República". I'm sure every portuguese person, despite his or her political views, is proud of our parliamentary system, and looks at the american system as a "Winner Takes All" non-democratic Regime.
Also, the system in Spain is very similar to Portugal.
Here are a few countries from Freedom House's latest democracy rating (scale 1-100):
Sweden: 100
Finland: 100
Norway: 100
New Zealand: 99
Canada: 98
Netherlands: 97
Japan: 96
Australia: 95
Germany: 94
UK: 93
Czech Republic: 92
Costa Rica: 91
Spain: 90
… etc
US? 83. Worse than Mongolia, Belize, Latvia, Lithuania, The Bahamas, Micronesia, and many more.
The cut-off for ”not democratic” is 80.
Here in Germany this will never happen. Our former chancelor Helmut Kohl once publicly said (analogous) that the population is too dumb to be allowed to interfere in political decision making. That showed pretty clearly what the mind set is regarding democrathy in Germany. And it has not changed one bit since.
„Democracy is from the people for the people by the people. But people are dumb.“ ~Some Indian guy in a YT video that makes it every now and then on my recommendation page
One big issue with this video, sir, Switzerland is not member of the EU. Pls use the swiss flag instead the EU-flag. Thank you.
As for the minarette-thing: it's bc some "congregations" of that believe wanted to go OVER the communal build-limits hights, and went to the european human rights court who overuled swiss legislature. The parliament didn't want to go for a "counterproposal" stating "all religions must abide by the law", swiss people agreed to condemning minaretts.
Also the constitutional court isn't needed, since the people has the first and last word. (why you need a court? If the people decide the constitution to be changed, than THAT IS IT.)
I am absolutely against referendums. What happens when a society influenced by media, propaganda and misinformation is allowed to vote on complex and important things can really backfire. All you have to do is look at Brexit. And that's quite harmless example. I don't want to imagine the chaos that would result from such a system in a totally polarized society in which the media constantly spread lies and propaganda without restraint (such as the USA).
Your computer is FUNNY!!! 😂
haha, glad you noticed eventually that the video was not supposed to be sped up like that. :) nice reaction!
as for the obligation of transparency, there has been a development:
Starting from the 2023 federal election, a new transparency requirement will be enforced. This requirement applies to:
- Political parties represented in Parliament and unaffiliated MPs. (Cantonal and local party branches are exempt.)
- Individuals and political organizations that invest over CHF 50,000 in a campaign for National Council elections or federal votes.
- Individuals and political organizations that have spent more than CHF 50,000 on a successful Council of States election.
The vote of our parliament is next month and I was very pleased to see the financing. It's definitely an improvement, yet I am not sure if there are still methods to cheat this new law.
The problem is the so-called freedom of speech. Ask yourself what the meaning is ??? Consider it very carefully please. Because freedom of speech is found in most democracies, but is defined differently. Freedom of speech, usually means as long as it does not inspire or create hate speech against any form of human ideas. (Read race, religion, political view etc) At the same time it also means that within the set limitation, whatever you say can not be censored by anyone, including government bodies.
Now lets look at the US. Hate speech can reign supreme, if you think otherwise just look at the white supremacist groups, or the immoral religious groups (read clubs like the FLDS). Can government bodies censore ?? Oooooh heck yes, when is the last time you heard the f word aloud on the telly ??? And it goes back a long time, Johnny Cash had a song called A Boy Named Sue, which nearly always gets a beep in it, the actual text here is the full form of SOB. (Yes I heard an uncensored version.)
Now ask yourself, what does freedom mean ??? Does freedom really mean the suppression of certain things, while allowing others, while in both cases it can be harmful to society ??? The obvious answer the US provides is a rather resounding YES.
.ch meaning Confoederatio Helvetica or Swiss Confederation.
Also if we look at this rather dumb graph on democracy, people overlook 1 thing, which imho is the utmost important thing. Any member of any political body, should be a representative of "the people". Ask yourself if any politician is representative of any group of people who can NOT buy the direction of policies. (Companies buy election in the US, by donating to campaigns simply, beause tey hop to ingluence certain legislation) Do you feel represented ??? How much did the government do for you ??? Look at simple things, like road maintenance or accessibility to healthcare, or the costs of education, helping homeless people etc etc etc.
7:14 They did not disallow freedom of religion nor the isamic churches (mosques). They disallowed disturbing the public peace via islamic prayer song being sung through speakers 5 times a day from those towers (minarets) to let the whole city know it's time to pray. People can still pray and attend to their church, they just can't disturb the public with their bulsht all day long. Which IMO is understandable cosidering only 5% of population is of islamic faith in there.
The big problem in representative democracies is that, nowadays, the politicians are not really representing the population, but their friends' interests (and, of course, their own one)
In fact, nowadays, it's very difficult to call "democracy" what happens, because normal people have no voice and it's being opressed by politicians' decisions. I'd say it's more similar to oligarchy.
Of course I think we are guilty for this situation. We keep voting in known thiefs, corrupt people or simply avoid voting, that's worse.
All that you saw about Swiss politics is to the point. Any your joke in the end about the marijuana gummis? Its not only marijuana gummis you can buy in MJ specialty shops. Marijuana drinks (as in drinks like Coke) can even be bought in vending machines everywhere. Nothing to raise the eyebrows for.
Switzerland is where the most anti-democratic villain in the world today, Klaus Schwab, lurks and plots his evil.
Regarding the minaretts (= "mosq tower": Switzerland did not forbid the moslems to practise their religion but only to build a tower with the half moon on top of it. Therefore the freedom of religion is untouched. Minaretts are a symbol and the Swiss apparently don't want the muslims to put their "flags" all over the country.
The problem with the system where people vote on a public place by liftig their arms is that it's not anonymous. When there's a controversial topic - like the minarett vote it can lead to unpleasant situations with people whom do not agree with your vote. If your muslim neighbour doesn't like that you're against minaretts for example.
RFLAO: all you need to make sure that countries rank the way you like it, is define parameters that suit your purpose. This is the Alfa and Omega of polls and stats. The Swiss parameters that make Switzerland quite democratic were not included in the survey, as they are a bit niche and nobody thought of including them. But Switzerland, as a consequence, does not use some of the tools used in America and a lot of Western states, and therefore fell down in the rankings. Marijuana is not illegal in Switzerland by the way. Not legal as such, but not illegal. It is a fine line which means that dealing for hard drugs and weed/hasch is not done by the same people, which does a lot for safety on the streets.
Don't call it "European democracy" in the title, every european country has so different systems
In Sweden we don't have 2 persons to vote for, we have like 10 different political parties, but unfortunately we have block-politics, which means several parties go together to have the majority of votes
That is even if one party has the majority of votes they can lose, so we kind of end up with the same poblem as the US where u really only have the democrats and republicans and u have 2 persons to vote for presidency (the 2 that get the most monetary backing from those who already rule the country)
There is no perfect political system, every possible system has pro’s and con’s. There’s absolutely systems that’s are worse than others, but you have to weigh the pro’s and con’s of the various different systems. The American system is better than many, but very far from the best if you weigh the pro’s & con’s on aggregate.
The Swiss system sounds good in theory, but has problems in practice (some mentioned in this video, some not). Likewise, the American system looks good on paper, but is so fossilized and outdated in some aspects and so twisted in execution in other aspects that today’s system wouldn’t be recognizable to the founding fathers.
One way to look at how great American democracy in.
The US goes in countries to give them "democracy", how many of those counties do they give, the American form of democracy? Zero. So it just goes to show what the politicians think of American democracy.
There can be advantages at a slow decision making process. People really think and envisage all sides and consequences. A minaret is a muslim tower, attached to a mosque. Life and ideas move on: what was once unthinkable (minarets) suddenly becomes acceptable. Just try again in a few years.
Direct democracy is voting for laws and legislative changes without political representation, without politicians, the existing politicians do not like that, I don't know what democracy means in the USA but democracy is not voting for politicians, democracy is that the power lies with the people the voter.
I think it's important to first understand what democracy actually means. There can of course be different views on this, but perhaps we can interpret the term as it is described in itself: demos, the people, kratos, the rule-people's rule. So NOT majority rule. A democracy in which the majority governs alone contradicts itself. The people are supposed to rule, but in a democracy which is based on majority alone the majority rules over the minority. But the minority is also part of the people. One way to escape this contradiction is representative democracy. Representatives stand for the people, including the minorities. This means that when decisions are made to the detriment of part of the population, consideration is still given to the extent to which their voice can still be involved. Representative democracy is therefore more democratic than absolute direct democracy. Which doesn't mean that referendums etc. wouldn't make sense or shouldn't happen, on the contrary. But they shouldn't replace the system and they must always follow the principles of the constitutional state which guarantee at least fundamental rights to minorities.
US's system is not a democracy, it is a Democratic Republic. In a Republic a council or senate make all the decision. What makes it a Democratic Republic is that you have the ability to vote towards who is in that senate makaing the selection of the Republic into a Democratic vote, thus Democratic Republic. In a democracy everyone has a vote on everything.
In the UK we officially have a constitutional monarchy, but in practice it's more like a parlimentary democracy. We vote for parlimentary representatives, we tell those representatives what we want and those representatives vote on laws. Once everyone agrees it is presented to the reigning monarch who gets final right of refusal before the law is implimented, but this right is basically ceremonial at this point since they never actually say anything about it.
Only Switzerland has direct democracy in Europe - all the other countries have popular vote (majority wins) representative democracy. But it is still better than America's electoral college two-party system (two-party system is literally one party more from one-party system - like, here in Europe, we call that oligarchy/diarchy).
The problem with direct democracy is that governments are not familiar with the idea that the people could think differently from them. Last time that the French president made a referendum the French citizen voted against the government. In switzerland all parties will inform the people about the good and bad about a law. There are political discussions on TV or in town halls. Every rotation costs a lot of money and effort to convince ppl. That is why in the swiss government all the political parties have a minister. Meaning the opposition is part of the government . The government and the parties are constantly lobbying the people for their ideas
50 000 americans voting the laws - the whole USA would disappear from the map within month xD
Direct democracy would be better for the human race, but you need a well-educated population, that's informed about the facts on what they are voting on.
In the current system in countries like the US and UK, this wouldn't work that well, because there are a lot of the population that either don't vote, or know on what they are voting on because they don't educate themselves on getting the facts on what they are voting on, and worse yet, are easy to manipulate by the media or some political groupings that want to push a specific agenda, basically, we saw a lot of that with Trump in the US and Brexit in the UK.
The truth is, a democracy is only as good as the people that take part in it, and only when the public is well-informed on what they are voting on, some countries do a better job on that, especially in Europe, some do a poor job, like the two countries I mentioned above.
Representative democracy is fine as well, which is what most democracies are, that can work as well, if they actually listen and represents the interest of the people, which again, those two countries above and many others, do a poor job of that, so much so that it feels like the public are constantly having to fight the government to do the right thing by them, which isn't a very enlighten or good system in my view and personally, I think representative democracy is the better option and probably why it's adopted by almost all modern countries, as most of the public don't want constant votes and to be educated on so many policy areas, but with that said, representative democracy could be a lot better if the actual government did what's in the interest of the people and not themselves.
I just watched a video where an US-American presenter explained that the USA is not a democracy but a republic.
The problem with minerat isn't visual. It's the load speakers calling 5 times a day for prair disturbing the peace for others.
`Democracy` began in the 5th Century Before Christ in the City States of Greece, where all free men were allowed a say upon the state of affairs and how to go on from there.
But consider what Plato would have made of Democracy.
How American of you, you put the European union flag for a video about... Switzerland
Swiss direct democracy truly really exemplifies the community in Europe. A lot of things are done together and for each other.
But 2 out 5 is roughly 40%, which is not high for political elections. In most "proper" democracies with free, independent and anonymous elections the participation is around 70-90% with a typical result in the mid 80s
For heaven's sake, put that thing back to normal speed :D - 3 minutes latooor... thank God ^^
0:04 and 0:17 Switzerland is *not* a pacifist country. on the contrary, it is armed to the teeth. not just because it has quite a reputable arms industry but also its citizens own a lot of firearms. whatever made you say these things, it is not backed up by facts on the ground
You should react to the european union system. It's not really democratic either because legislations can only be proposed by the commission, which is not elected directly.
lol. kuddos if you watched that to the end. Call me anything you want : but such a narrated video is after 5 seconds : Quit youtube - reboot pc - throw pc out of window.
In Switzerland (and Luxemburg) the have a concordance democracy, while others, like the US have a concurrence democracy.
In A concurrence democracy one party or a coalition of parties will lead the government for a certain time, until the next vote.
So in Europe, there are typically more than two parties to vote.
In a concordance democracy all parties, that have representatives in the highest election will have also representatives in the government.
Think about demcrates and republicans always both are in the government as ministers.
This brings a lot of continuity.
But as all are in the government and are responsible for any decision, if there are decisions one party likes and the other not, they will ask the people.
That is, what is done four times a year in Switzerland.
In other aspects, they are somewhat outdated, as the right for women to vote, was established in 1971 by such a general referendum.
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The short sign of the nation is germany D, united kingdom UK and switzerland is CH.
There is a problem with your Swiss video, it is in fast motion. I saw the original video, and it plays at a normal pace...
Democracy was created in europe . a 2 party system is not democracy . Multiple parties and coalitions are asurance that the goverment speaks for the people .
Watched this video 2 days ago and talking was natural. You must have the wrong speed.
Ryan advocating for online-voting every 3 minutes 😅 ... Made my morning!
As Putin once said; America has no lesson to give the world on democracy when a candidate with the least votes.can be elected president.
what ever you did to that video haha its like smurfs where running... I played the video and it played at normal speed. try it again haha
En Suiza hay mezquitas, pero el minarete ya no tiene sentido, porque se utiliza en países de mayoría musulmana para recordar a sus fieles que es el momento de orar....no tiene sentido cuando la mayor parte de la gente no es musulmana.....y los suizos, como algunos otros países europeos tienen un mal recuerdo de los intentos de conquista brutales de los turcos. ...no creo que tengan gran deseo de un recuerdo de una etapa terrible ....así que es comprensible, creo....