(MENAFN- Swissinfo)
Ever since 1848, when Switzerland became the modern state, the right to recall elected cantonal institutions has existed.
In response to colleagues around the world who were curious about the phenomenon, Serdült, Research Collaborator at the Center for Democracy Aarau, published an article entitled“The history of a dormant institution: Legal norms and the practice of recall in Switzerland”.
swissinfo.ch: People elsewhere in the world would dream about a citizen's tool to recall governments, yet in Switzerland, the existing instrument is hardly ever used. Why is that so?
Uwe Serdült is a historian and political scientist at the Centre for Democracy in Aarau. His research interests include direct ( and electronic democracy (see projects here), decision making processes and structures ( institutional change and comparative public policy zvg
Uwe Serdült: It is a means of last resort that can be applied when all other control mechanisms fail.
Revoking governing bodies by citizens began between the middle and end of the 19th century, in other words during the formation of the modern nation state, when Switzerland became the organised and peaceful country that we know today.
After the right was introduced, other mechanisms followed, such as the referendum and the people's initiative, which allowed a law to be stricken or to introduce a constitutional amendment, without having to dissolve a government or parliament.
The efficiency of the justice system and various tools for accountability in public institutions were then added.
In Switzerland today, cases involving politicians' incompetence or corruption are resolved mainly through legal means, media pressure or internal reorganisation.
swissinfo.ch: How is the right to revoke implemented in Switzerland and how often has the tool been employed?
U.S.: The right does not exist at federal level. Only six out of the 26 cantons regulate it. These are Bern, Schaffhausen, Solothurn, Thurgau, Uri and Ticino. Uri and Ticino also offers the right of revocation at municipal levels.
A minimum number of signatures is required –between 2% and 30% of the electorate – to lead to the removal of a parliament or the government, or both, without identifying precise individuals, thus distinguishing the process from those in other countries.
If a majority of votes is achieved, the public body is dissolved and new members are elected, with mandates lasting until regular elections are called.
There have only been a dozen attempts to activate the mechanism. Four times it came to a vote and only once, in 1862 it was accepted, in the canton of Aargau.
Revocation right Switzerland was one of the first countries to recognise the right to revoke a mandate.
Today the right exists, according to different rules in several other countries, including the US, Germany, Poland, Peru, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Argentina and Venezuela.
The six Swiss cantons, which provide for this tool of direct democracy are:
Bern, since 1846, for government and parliament.
Solothurn, since 1869, for government and parliament.
Schaffhausen: since 1876 for government and parliament.
Ticino: since 1892, for cantonal government and since 2011 for municipal governments.
Uri, since 1915 for all cantonal and municipal elected bodies.
Aargau (1852-1980), Basel Country (1863-1984) and Lucerne (1975-2007) abolished the right.
At the national level, however, the popular election and revocation of the government do not exist.
Since 1900, several people's initiatives have unsuccessfully sought to allow for the election of the national government. The most recent, in 2013, promoted by the Swiss People's Party, was rejected by 76% of the electorate.
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The most recent examples occurred in Ticino, where the recall process was limited to the government, including once at cantonal level in 2008 and in 2011 at the municipal level (in Bellinzona).
swissinfo.ch: The only successful recall vote in Switzerland occurred 154 years ago and dealt with an anti-Semitic issue.
U.S.: Yes. Aargau's parliament, which was liberal and Protestant, wanted to grant land legally to allow for the emancipation of Jews, who had only been allowed to settle in two poor, rural Catholic villages within the canton, in Endingen and Lengnau.
Several Catholic leaders, together with a few Protestant groups, launched a protest movement. Jewish homes were attacked and the revocation right was invoked.
They had to collect 6,000 signatures. They obtained 9,000 in less than one month, and in July 1862, 63% of votes supported the termination of the parliament's mandate. The government resigned and called new elections.
swissinfo.ch: The revocation allowed a profound popular malaise to be put on trial amid a budding democratic process.
U.S.: It is important to remember that the tool was used when memories of serious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants were still fresh. Unlike the situation before 1848, these opposing forces now clashed on an institutional level, and no longer on a battlefield.
For a long time, there had been revolutions and radical changes, and the time had come to organise modern Switzerland.
A few cantons had openly suggested that the right to revoke mandates be set up to avoid revolutions. It was a justification to avoid violence. The revocation right could be a security valve to channel popular discontent via a political institution, and within a political process.
swissinfo.ch: Is the revocation right disappearing within the Swiss context?
U.S.: The historic trend appears to be so. Only six out of the nine cantons that originally adopted it still maintain the right. In the canton of Ticino, with three failed attempts to revoke officials, and where the political elite sometimes becomes involved in fierce political disputes, the mechanism was extended to municipal levels.
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