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The funniest (in the "makes you cry" sense) thing is that it tends to be "progressive", "leftist", "labour", "of-the-people" kind of politicians that complain the loudest about "populism". It basically says that they know what's best for the people only as long as the people happen to agree with them, and therefore disagreeing with them must be disallowed.

You're correct that the left these days in Europe (and I say this as a Finnish leftist myself) is more worried about populism because right wing populism is on the rise. However, you're wrong if you think this means I - or the left in general - think disagreement or in fact populism itself should be disallowed. There's nothing wrong with being a populist. I mean, the point of a politician after all is to try and enact the will of the people who elected him, so populism in a sense is central to western politics.

The problem with populism is that the more complicated a topic, the easier it is for populists to oversimplify the issue and paint an entirely skewed picture to the voters. And this is not a partisan issue, the same faults and problems are entirely possible on the left itself, it's just that right now the right has embraced this kind of populism more.

Much like you're arguing that the people cannot be trusted to vote for the right thing. Or, you know, cannot be trusted to see through the murky bullshit politicians spout. Again, it's an argument to do away with democracy because it doesn't work

No. I'm saying that if you're having a vote on an important and complex issue there should be impartial information handed out to the voters about the outcomes. In Switzerland (arguably the nation curently furthest in implementing direct democracy) whenever they have these votes on matters of policy, they get beforehand an information package that contains the pros and cons of both sides. Look at the amount of information and material that the Swiss get before they head to the polls on any issue:

National referendum government information booklet National referendum ballot (5 issues) Cantonal referendum government information booklet Cantonal referendum ballot (2 issues) Municipal referendum government information booklet Municipal referendum ballot (4 issues) Municipal election ballot for the city government (5 seats including the mayor) Municipal election ballot for the mayor of Berne Municipal election government information booklet Municipal election ballots for the city parliament (80 seats). Preprinted ballots for all party lists and one empty ballot are provided. Voters may cast only one ballot. Return envelope for postal voting. To vote by mail, voters must insert the sealed ballot envelope (13) and the signed voter identification card (12) into the return envelope and mail it to the city chancellery for counting. Voter identification card. It must be signed in order for a mail vote to be valid. It is discarded after validation and before the ballot envelope (13) is opened, so as to preserve the secrecy of the ballot. Ballot envelope. Mail voters must insert their ballots and seal the envelope. Election advertising material produced by the parties. Each party is restricted to one brochure of a prescribed format to be delivered to voters this way.

So yes, they get marketing material in retsricted amounts by the parties, but they also get booklets constructed by the government about the pros and cons of the issue. This way, the parties cannot easly make wild assertions in their marketing of the issue because the opposing side can easily say: "check the numbers from the booklet, their claim is false." and you will lose the vote.

If the information about the vote is left for the campaigns of both sides and no facts whatsoever are established in the mind of the populace, then certainly the people cannot be trusted to vote correctly because they might

http://direct-democracy.geschi...

> Switzerland has had direct democracy for the last 150 years and is certainly not in the dark ages, it is working rather well. Thanks for the insult.

Hey, and women can also vote since 1971!

TFA states: That's why no country practices direct democracy. Wrong

And here are the Swiss raising their hands to ban nude hiking by germans.

Stupid article - a transparent attempt to get his friend a new bicycle. I strongly urge everyone to go to the Kona website and vote for the Tanuki (if you don't understand why, RTFA).

Oh, and TFA states: That's why no country practices direct democracy. Wrong

oh? Well how about this one?

no, its not a joke. The Red Cross was intentionally designed based on the Swiss flag by reversing the color scheme. In other words it IS derivative work. This happened in 1864 by the IKRK. The Red Cross is an international, not just an American, organization with its root in Switzerland. Switzerland should sue J+J. In case you can read German: http://www.geschichte-schweiz.ch/schweizer-flagge- schweizerkreuz.html

If "true democracy" Swiss style is so great then why didn't women get the vote in elections untils some time in the 1970s and in some Cantons not until around 1990s in some cantonal elections ?

It doesn't quite sound like a "true democracy" if 50% of the population can't vote

http://history-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch/c hronology-womens-right-vote-switzerland.html

Interestingly, the Althing (Icelandic parliament) has a very long tradition, but Iceland was colonized by Norway (and later Denmark?), and was disbanded for a while in the 1800's. So Iceland might actually not be more stable than the U.S. which has has a sovereign democratic government that predates the current incarnation of the Althing.

Switzerland appears to have instituted a democratic tradition later than the U.S. (in 1798 if I understand correctly), although the city states did not succumb to a central authority.