this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2024
472 points (99.2% liked)

World News

39142 readers
2210 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Summary

Swiss voters rejected a $5.6 billion (CHF 5 billion) motorway expansion plan (52.7%) and two proposals to ease eviction rules and tighten subletting controls (53.8% and 51.6%).

Environmental concerns and housing fairness were key to the opposition.

Meanwhile, a healthcare reform to standardize funding for outpatient and inpatient care narrowly passed (53.3%), marking a rare success for health policy changes.

The results highlight public resistance to certain government-backed initiatives.

Voter turnout was 45%.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Our political system might work better than most western democracies, but your claim is categorically untrue.

The elite have strong power in the Swiss system

  • Our largest party’s rise to power was because it’s leader was a far-right billionaire. Ever since, that party has been majority billionaire funded.
  • Our national bank is 50% owned by private companies.
  • Our cooperate lobbying laws are some of the laxest in the western world.
  • Our representatives consistently prove to be more elite friendly than the average person, as shown again and again by referendum results vs their government votes.

I’m sick of the upper middle classes in Switzerland consistently saying the system is representative of the wider population.

It’s representative of their classes, not those of us who get by below the poverty wage, not those of us stuck in oppressive nursing home setups, not those of us who fall through the cracks of a system which is so focused on stability it often ignores needed reform. We have some of the worst disability rights laws in western europe. We only gave women the right to vote in the 70s (and in parts of the country, the 90s).

It takes a fundamentally fucked up country where in the same village of population 10,000, disabled people can starve to death whilst being unable to afford medical care, while a 5 minute drive away, there is the villa of a billionaire.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

To add to that:

We have a militia system, which on first glance is a good thing. But then you realize that a plurality of parliamentarians are lawyers, business-people, advisors and other higher economic class individuals. Too many of them are on boards of directors or other high management positions in corporations. Compared to other western countries, it is more mixed, but clear conflicts of interests are present and it is still skewed towards the economic elite. The reasons for this are many, but among others voters getting such individuals in high positions can be paired with people in lower economic classes having less opportunities or motivation to run for office. Which is why local organizing is of utmost importance. You can see the effect in parliaments on a local level: They far more closely represent the population than on a state or federal level. Then there's party politics, but that'll get too long, soooo: Next point:

The media landscape: Your point about a billionaire having great impact on the electoral landscape extends to the media. You can count the owners of the local papers on one hand. Said billionaire owns some of them as well as an own TV channel if you can call it that. And there's a general animosity towards the SRG SSR with political and legislative attacks to weaken it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Just to be fair, the claim that "our national bank is 50% owned by private companies" isn’t entirely accurate—it’s actually 45%. The Swiss National Bank is designed to be independent, and that’s why it’s not owned solely by the federal government, provincial governments, or private entities. This mix ensures that no single group has too much influence over its operations, and the structure has proven to work flawlessly for decades. Private shareholders have limited rights, dividends are capped, and monetary policy is fully independent.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The federal government has no ownership. It’s owned 55% split across the canton’s and 45% private shareholders.

In practice that means basically if 2 cantons and the private companies agree on something, and the 24 other cantons disagree, the private companies get there way.

It’s an institutionalisation of corporatism.

In practice it loses billions of CHF in public funds, on purpose, to make sure the CHF doesn’t become too strong, the CHF becoming stronger benefits the population, but hurts the companies because their prices become less competitive. It’s a system made to serve the companies as much as the people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

There are 100k shares and voting rights for private shareholders are capped at 100 shares. So there would have to be 450 private entities each owning 100 shares all agreeing to enact what you propose.

As of the end of 2023, private sector shareholders held 26,559 shares, accounting for 26.9% of the share capital. Of these, 15,116 were voting shares, representing 22.8% of the total voting rights.