• UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    How do you feel about Switzerland’s semi direct democracy governance?

    What do you like and what do you think needs to be improved.


    How are your gun laws structured? Could you briefly describe the purchasing process? Do private citizens have to store their firearms in a centralized location or can they keep them secured at home?


    Sorry this is off topic, and might be to much to ask. Feel free to answer what you’re comfortable with or ignore me. Appreciate you answering questions people have none the less.

    • Raylon@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      How do you feel about Switzerland’s semi direct democracy governance?

      Now I’m not sure which part you mean, the direct voting or our parliament / government? In short, I think the biggest flaw which is directly a part of the system is our Ständerat and Ständemehr, which is basically like the US Senate, where the voice of a person from Uri counts 500 times as much as the voice of someone from Zurich.

      Then there are the problems outside of it, where I’d say the biggest one is Corporate money influencing voting and elections.

      And while sometimes misused, I still like our direct voting on issues. In the past 10 years we (from the left) were able to prevent multiple things decided by the parliament thanks to this system and even succeeded in winning a proposal to raise pensions for poorer people, which (winning a equality issue proposal) has never happened before in Swiss history.

    • Raylon@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      How are your gun laws structured? Could you briefly describe the purchasing process? Do private citizens have to store their firearms in a centralized location or can they keep them secured at home?

      As a Swiss citizen, owning a gun is pretty easy. I’m not an expert and don’t own one, but afaik to buy a gun, one needs to do a background check and have some basic training with it. You can keep your gun at home, but carrying (hidden or open) is only allowed in exceptional cases, e.g. for professional reasons, and must be allowed in a court decision.

      I hope these answers cover it more or less, feel free to ask more :-)