[Culturechat] Referendums and Popular Initiatives in CH

[Vance Roy]

Popular Initiatives
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If a CH citizen or group wishes to amend the constitution, they must 
collect 100,000 citizen signatures on a petition within a period of 18 
months. This can take the form of specific wording which the government 
or parliament may not change, or a general proposal.

Frequently, the government responds with a specific counter proposal, 
which is often less in scope than that put forward by the petition. If 
the people's proposal and the government's proposal are both approved, 
a deciding vote is held.

Popular initiatives may not originate from the Parliament or 
Government, but they must come from the citizens themselves. They are 
therefore a driving force behind direct democracy, and one can see how 
the Swiss are kept busy voting several times a year.


Referendums
___________

After the Swiss parliament makes a law, the people may contest against 
it by calling a referendum. A petition signed by 50,000 citizens 
gathered within 100 days of the law's passage will set up a vote by 
referendum

This referendum is essentially a "people's veto" power. It tends to 
keep the politicians, if not honest, at least in check.


Vance Roy
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch
http://homepage.mac.com/fredch