The following excerpt is from an article on Swiss direct democracy from a series #DearDemocracy written by Sandro Lüscher from swissinfo.ch, the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. The article was translated from German by Terence MacNamee. Take a look:

Switzerland is a semi-direct, not a purely parliamentary democracy. There is no “throwing the rascals out” – no alternation in power between government and opposition parties. And the right to take part in decision-making on important issues reduces the perceived importance of elections. Secondly, in the post-war era, due to a social change, a general decline in voter participation has become apparent.

Swiss democracy is dominated by the referendum system. According to a great summary on Swiss direct democracy and how it developed by the World Economic Forum:

The government, also called Federal Council, is the executive power. It is composed of seven Federal Councillors from several Swiss political parties, which are elected by the Federal Assembly every four years and share the duties of a head of state. Federal Councillors rotate and every year one takes on the role of president…

…Popular votes can be held up to four times a year. The Federal Council decides a couple of months in advance which proposals will be voted on and releases the dates of the votes even earlier. Currently all the dates have been fixed from now until 2034.

For more information on Swiss direct democracy see our archive of articles on direct democracy or visit our Voting Methods Central!