Presented by Christian Hölzl on 16 October 2026 at the conference “Multicultural Citizenship and its Challenges: Recognition, Subsidiarity, and Rule of Law” (Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Ittihadiyoun, Beirut), session “The Concept of Subsidiarity”.
Direct democracy is presented as the pinnacle of subsidiarity. The slides explain the three types of votes – electing representatives, the initiative that forces a vote on a constitutional change, and the referendum that forces a vote on a law – and the signatures each needs: 100,000 for a federal initiative, 50,000 for a federal referendum, and a share of the electors in cantons and municipalities.
They follow the process from collecting and depositing signatures to the campaign and the vote – at the polling station, by mail or electronically – and the Landsgemeinde, the open-air assembly voting by a show of hands since 1231. They close on the psychology of direct democracy: I discuss it, I take a position, my opinion counts, we decide together.