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Swiss here, curiously interested, what does direct democracy in the US look like?

Direct democracy means a lot around here, like not having a single party long term in some control positions who could block or manipulate bills. Voting on topics instead of politians is only a small aspect of this all working.



> what does direct democracy in the US look like?

Two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_California_Proposition_13 (massively screwed up the housing market in California, not feasible to reverse it now)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_California_Proposition_8 (defined marriage in the state constitution as between a man and a woman, still on the books but invalidated in court... for now)


I've been curious as a Brit living thought the mess that was the brexit vote and implementation, how the Swiss would have dealt with such a matter? I'm told they have better systems and wouldn't have done it like we did but I'm not sure quite how.


We have voted in Schengen membership in 2008, but opted out of many association agreements with EU. We have a referendum like every 4 months, so all of this is not a big deal, things like these are routinely decided with a direct all-nation vote.


Ah - the every 4 months kind of thing might have helped rather than our every 30 years or something like that.


Well owning a set of lock picks is illegal in the US so... 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.


That is not true. It’s on a state-by-state basis and only a few states have laws that say ownership is automatically seen as intent to commit a crime.

It’s legal in most states to own lock picks and use them on locks you own.

I also believe most of the same states allow you to use them on any locks with the permission of the owner, but there may be a few that require a locksmith for that, even if you aren’t selling the service.


> Well owning a set of lock picks is illegal in the US so... 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

No. https://www.toool.us/lockpicking-laws.php

Oddy enough, owning lockpicks is sorta illegal in some Canadian provinces.




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