I’ve been thinking about this for a while: Switzerland’s direct democracy is great, but lately it feels like the barrier to launching initiatives might be a bit too low. Over the past years, we’ve seen quite a few initiatives that ended up going nowhere but still cost a lot of time, taxpayer money, and effort to process. Some of them didn’t seem very well thought out from the start. On top of that, there have been reports of fake or questionable signatures being collected, which honestly just damages trust in the whole system. I’m not saying we should make it impossible for people to participate. But maybe there’s a middle ground? For example: Increasing the number of required signatures so proposals actually reflect broader support Stricter checks to avoid fake or duplicate signatures Maybe even a small cost per signature (like 1 CHF) so people don’t just spam initiatives without thinking them through Right now, it kind of feels like 1 signature = 1 CHF in administrative cost anyway, except the public pays for it. Curious what others think, does the system still strike the right balance, or is it being stretched too far? submitted by /u/Extreme-Engine1070
Originally posted by u/Extreme-Engine1070 on r/Switzerland