Switzerland’s highly original system of direct democracy is unique in the world. Some interesting recent analysis of the Swiss system comes from Lukas Leuzinger, writing for swissinfo.ch, a branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation:

During the day, Markus Geist is a manager at the Swiss Federal Railways in Bern. After work, he drives home to study zoning plans or chair community meetings.

Geist is the vice mayor of Grosshöchstetten, a town west of Bern with about 3,500 people. This makes him one of the thousands of Swiss holding political office in addition to a job. Geist also served as the mayor of the neighbouring municipality of Schlosswil, population 630. But Schlosswil no longer exists as a municipality – it merged with Grosshöchstetten at the beginning of 2018.

The combination of a profession in parallel to local politics is the core of the Swiss militia system. This forms the basis of Swiss politics not only at the municipal, but also at the cantonal and national levels.

More on this from swissinfo.ch