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Switzerland: Citizens’ Initiatives as a Measure to Control the Political Agenda

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Book cover Citizens’ Initiatives in Europe

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Abstract

Switzerland formed as a modern state out of 25 cantons and half-cantons in 1848, with universal (male) suffrage. The new state was initially designed as a representative system. Although the first constitution had a clause that constitutional amendments have to be the subject of a popular vote, the so-called compulsory referendums, and it was possible to ask for a total revision of the constitution through collecting signatures, it was never the intention of the constitution makers that there would be regular and frequent amendments to the constitution. The mandatory referendum was mainly a concession towards the Catholic minority to make sure that constitutional amendments could not easily be pushed through by the national legislatures (Rappard, 1912). After the adoption of the first constitution in 1848, it took 18 years until the first amendments to the constitution became unavoidable.

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Authors
  1. Georg Lutz
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Turku, Finland

    Maija Setälä (Academy Research Fellow) (Academy Research Fellow)

  2. Department of Political Science, Philipps University, Marburg, Germany

    Theo Schiller (Emeritus Professor of Political Science) (Emeritus Professor of Political Science)

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© 2012 Georg Lutz

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Lutz, G. (2012). Switzerland: Citizens’ Initiatives as a Measure to Control the Political Agenda. In: Setälä, M., Schiller, T. (eds) Citizens’ Initiatives in Europe. Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230369900_2

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