The principle behind the Referendum is as old as the Swiss nation, the word coming from the usages of the old Federal Diets, in which the delegates did not decide matters themselves, but voted ad referendum, and submitted their actions to the home governments. The power to veto an ordinary law made by representatives was established for the first time in modern days, in 1831, in the Canton of St. Gallen. It was a compromise between the party which wanted to establish pure democracy, and the party of representative government. It is, however, only the same old Swiss voter of centuries ago, telling his member of the Diet to conclude nothing important without his consent. The demand of 50,000 electors to amend the constitution, or to repeal or to modify an existing law, is called a “popular initiative,” and, when made, the Federal Assembly must submit the question to a vote of the people and the Canton. In every cantonal constitution, except Freiburg, the right of the people to have all important legislation subjected in some form to popular confirmation or rejection is recognized. While general assemblies of the people in the Cantons to make the laws fell into desuetude, popular franchise and complete freedom of election were not enough to satisfy the democratic sensibilities of the Swiss. They were still jealous of the plenary powers of their delegates, and insisted that their deliberations when formulated into laws, should be referred to the sovereign people. Previous to the French revolution, the governments of the different Cantons had largely fallen into the hands of a limited number of aristocratic families. The laboring classes were crushed under enormous burdens by the nobility in the rural districts, and by the rich bourgeoisie in the cities. Artificial barriers were placed about the freedom of commerce and labor in the interest of these more powerful classes. The period of reaction following the Napoleonic era was unfavorable to the development of popular institutions. Since the cantonal revolutions of 1830 there has been a general return to the principle known as the Referendum; and after the federal Constitution of 1848, by which the constitution of a Canton could only be revised on the demand of an absolute majority of the citizens, the policy of extending the principles of the Referendum to its fullest limits rapidly grew in favor. There are two forms of Referendum existing in the Cantons, compulsory and optional; the one requiring the reference of every law passed by the Great Council before it acquires validity; and in the other, a discretionary power of reference is reserved to the people. The first is regarded as the more practical and satisfactory; the chief objection to the latter being the agitation occasioned in procuring the necessary signatures, producing excitement, diverting the thoughts of voters from the real question at issue, and thus giving an undue bias to public opinion, and a character of partisanship to the resulting Referendum.
The number of signatures required in the optional Referendum varies, according to the size of the Canton, from five hundred to one thousand voters, and the time within which it must be made, usually thirty days from the passage of the law and its official publication. The compulsory Referendum exists in the seven Cantons of Zurich, Bern, Solothurn, Grisons, Aargau, Thurgau, and the Valais, and in the rural half-Canton of Basel. In Schwyz and Vaud both forms obtain. In Zurich a popular vote must be taken upon all changes in the constitution, new laws, concordats, and the appropriation of an amount exceeding 250,000 francs, or an annual expenditure exceeding 20,000 francs. The power of the cantonal council in Zurich is further limited by the initiative. Any voter, if supported by one-third of the members present at its next sitting, or any 5000 voters, may demand the passing, alteration or abolition of a law, or of a decision of the council. The optional Referendum exists in the seven Cantons of Luzern, Zug, Schaffhausen, St. Gallen, Ticino, Neuchâtel, Geneva, and the urban portion of Basel. Generally speaking, laws, concordats, and sometimes resolutions of cantonal councils are submitted to optional Referendum. It exists for financial matters, in different gradations in other Cantons, from 500,000 francs in Bern to 50,000 francs in Schwyz. The initiative as to revision of the constitution prevails in all of the Cantons upon certain conditions, and the demand of voters varying in number from 1500 to 5000; with the exception of Bern and Valais, where there is no initiative. As before stated, Freiburg is now the only Canton in which the sovereignty of the people is not thus directly exercised; all the others, with the exception of those where there is still a Landsgemeinde, possess either a compulsory or an optional Referendum; and in two instances both. A few Cantons have introduced an imperative initiative, by petition from a fixed number of voters, demanding action upon a certain matter by the cantonal council; whereupon the council must take a vote upon it, and then submit it to a popular vote, even if the action of the council upon it has been unfavorable.
This combination of representative institutions with the direct exercise of popular sovereignty is well calculated to promote the welfare of the people, occupying the peculiar position in which the Swiss are placed. The discipline of self-government in the Commune, and the training afforded by an effective system of popular education, have qualified them for the practice of direct democracy. With the Swiss legislature standing above the executive and judiciary, we might call Switzerland a parliamentary republic, if it were not for another power, which stands not only in the final theory, but even in the daily practice, of the constitution, above the legislature. This power is the people themselves. The Referendum shows clearly where the seat of sovereignty in Switzerland is located.
CHAPTER IX.
THE COMMUNES.
The lowest unit in the political system is that which still exists under various names, as the Mark, the Gemeinde, the Commune, or the Parish, the analogue of the precinct or township in the United States. The communal system of Switzerland is peculiar in many respects, and presents one of the most instructive lessons which modern political life furnishes of the working of village communities.
The Swiss Commune, speaking comprehensively, is a political and civil division, standing midway between a political body and a joint stock company: a corporation, in one sense, endowed with perpetuity, and holding landed and other property; also a political entity, embracing all the burghers for economical purposes,—that is, for the administration and enjoyment of the usufruct of the communal property; and embracing all the inhabitants for legislative and administrative purposes, with a great variety of local exceptions and limitations. The right of the Cantons and the several Communes to modify these features results in endless divergencies. Being an area of local self-government, and possessed, to a high degree, of freedom in self-direction, the Commune is not far from being an independent, autonomous entity, forming an imperium in imperio, both politically and economically. Forming the simplest division in the Confederation, still it is of vital importance; its personality to the Canton being what the Canton is to the nation. It inspires with its common life, not simply a life of political activity, but of common social and economical interests. It is so intimately bound up with all existing rights that its wishes are largely paramount in federal and cantonal action. Having so genuine and vigorous a political, social, and economical life of its own, in which the faiths, hopes, passions, and duties of the citizen are involved, the Commune may be considered a small republic with indefinite rights.
The Swiss Commune is of very ancient origin, and claims to have been founded on the idea that civic rights and freedom were disconnected from mere birth or ownership of land, stress being laid instead on quasi-corporate union; one of the many forms of the gens or clan, in which it is no longer a wandering or a merely predatory body; but when, on the other hand, it takes the form of an agricultural body, holding its common lands, and forming one component element of a commonwealth. The independence of the Swiss Commune has survived from the days of the primitive village community; that gathering of real or artificial kinsmen, made up of families, each living under the rule, the mund, of its own father; that patria potestas which formed so marked and lasting a feature of the Roman law, and is to-day respected by the Confederation, designedly preserved by legislation, and jealously guarded by the people.
The integer of Swiss political society is not the individual, not the household; the Commune is the Switzer’s ideal of a social and political system. The Swiss Society of Public Usefulness, in a pamphlet published in 1871, called “Souvenir de la Suisse,” with the purpose of presenting the Swiss republic as a model to the French soldiers, who at that time under Bourbaki had retreated into Switzerland, declares: “Our laws proceed from this great principle, that our institutions are truly free and popular, only in so far as our Communes are free; we move from low to high, the Commune is the centre of our life, and there can be no true development of liberty, except so far as it proceeds from the Communes, from the centre to the circling lines, from the simple to the composite.” Mr. Numa Droz, chief of foreign affairs in the Swiss Cabinet, in his “Instruction Civique,” a text-book in the Swiss public school, says: “The Commune is almost the state in a small compass; to employ an illustration from natural history, it is one of the cells of which the social body is composed. It is certain that a much-developed local right contributes to the strength and prosperity of the state. The Communes must have perfect liberty in rivalling one another in their efforts to satisfy and advance the interests they have in charge. So, care must be taken not to reduce them to a uniform level, which would stifle all spirit of initiative, every desire for improvement. The Communes were the first and principal nurseries of democracy, and are still so in many countries. In their bosom the citizens are best able of training themselves for public life, of familiarizing themselves with administrative questions, and learning how to deal with them. They are the natural nursery grounds, whence the state legislators and public servants come. A citizen, reared in the practical school of communal life, will always understand better the popular wants than one whose political education has been obtained in the offices of federal administration.”
The commission appointed by the National Council to prepare a revised constitution for the Confederation, in their report, May, 1871, say: “The liberty of the Swiss Commune is justly considered as the school and cradle of our political liberties.”
The Swiss constitution expressly recognizes communal citizenship and rights. In declaring that every Swiss citizen shall enjoy at his place of residence all rights of the citizens of the Canton, as also, all rights of the citizens of the Commune, it makes this reservation: “He shall, however, have no share in the common property of citizens or of the corporation, nor shall he exercise the right to vote in matters pertaining purely to such affairs, unless the cantonal laws determine otherwise.” It further provides that “No Canton shall deprive any of its citizens of his rights, whether acquired by birth or settlement,” referring to the citizenship derived from his “Commune d’Origine.” Every child born of registered citizens becomes, by birth, a citizen of the Commune, and thereby also a citizen of the Canton, and of the Confederation. He shares all political rights, exercises them according to established rule, is supported by the communal funds when in distress, and assists in bearing all Communal burdens. He is therefore fully entitled to every Swiss privilege, when his name once stands in the communal register, and of these sacred rights he cannot be alienated. All whose names are not thus registered are of the “homeless” (“Heimathlosen”), a word of melancholy significance in Switzerland.