BOOKS.

THE REFERENDUM AND INITIATIVE IN SWITZERLAND.*

Tax book which forms the subjeot of this review affords great support to the plea for the Referendum or Poll of the People which we make once more in our leading columns. The Poll of the People is of supreme value in a democratic system of government. Democracy, taken as a whole, is the system of government with the fewest drawbacks. It is per se the most just, the most reasonable, and the most practical. It is, how- ever, open to certain serious drawbacks, especially when, as in.the modern State, it is necessary for Democracy to bo worked through representative institutions. These representative insti- tutions tend to produce in effect, if not in name, a governing oligarchy ; and this tendency is enormously increased by a strict Party system. Finally, representation and the Party system together are very apt to establish conditions under which Democracy, instead of producing what it was intended to produce and what all honest men desire that it should produce —majority rule, i.e., the Will of the People as a whole—produces government by a minority. Unless great care is taken in the matter of governance, minorities in the modern democratic State are always usurping rule.

The remedy, as the Swiss found and as the States of the American Union have found, is to supplement representation, which is of course quite neoessary in large States, by lodging an ultimate veto power over the work of the representatives of the people in the hands of the people themselves. This is the Referendum or Poll of the People. The Poll of the People is an institution which is, naturally enough, hated by party politicians and caucus bosses. Though in truth it does not destroy or impair or degrade representative institutions or assemblies, they are apt to declare that this is sure to be its effect. Though the Poll of the People takes away the power of the log-roller and of the makers of political bargains and options, it does not mean undue interference with the affairs of the representatives of the State. It does not contradict the primal law that, though the many must command, the carrying out of their commands must be in the hands of the few. This is the law under which matters of detail are decided by the minority, while in the great things the People have the final word. Ouriously enough, Tacitus notes that this wise practice in his • Government and Polities of Switzerland. By Robert C. Brooks. Loudon : Narrap.. Portsmouth Week KuigswaY. 1.7a. 6d. net.]

time inspired the policy of the Teutonic tribes on the Roman frontier. The Principe', he tells us, give their decisions on the lesser matters ; the whole people on the greater.

Switzerland did not invent the Referendum or Poll of the People. The first clear example of a law being referred to the People is the vote taken in Massachusetts in the year 1778 on the proposed Constitution for the State Commonwealth. Yet Switzerland has used the Referendum more conspicuously, and also more efficiently than any other nation. We are of course aware that all the State Constitutions in America except, two contain provision for taking a Poll of the People. In oases of constitutional change the Poll is always made obligatory. Nevertheless, the public in general, or at any rate the British public, will never pay much attention to State or Cantonal action or as they confusedly call it, local government. Not till the Federal government, as it some day will, adopts the Referendum for all great changes will the ordinary English politicians realize how great a part the Referendum plays in American political life.

Be this as it may, the Swiss stage is a very good one on which to watch the working of the Referendum. The popular veto over Federal legislation is of three kinds.. First, there is the obligatory Referendum under which all alterations in the constitution of the Swiss Federal Republic must be sent for the affirmation or the veto, the Yes or the No, of all the citizens. Next there comes the optional or facultative Referendum, under which 30,000 voters, or 8 Cantons through their representatives, may apply to the Government to have any law passed by the national legislature submitted to the Vote of the electors before it cornea into operation. In addition there is something which in appearance partakes of the nature of the Referendum or Poll of the People, but which is in essence different. That is the Initiative. Under the Initiative 50,000 voters can petition that a certain Bill set forth either by them or by the Federal Parliament should become part of the constitution. When such a petition takes place, the Bill is submitted straight to the Vote of the People without undergoing debate or criticism in the Federal Parliament. We may add that this system, with a slight variation, is to be found in the constitutions of almost all the Cantons as well as in the Federal System. We do not, however, propose to deal in detail on the present occasion with anything except the Federal and National Poll of the People.

Many are the prejudices, misunderstandings, and complete delusions that are entertained in regard to the working of the Veto of the People. An excellent way of clearing them away is to be found in the chapter on the Referendum and the Initiative given by Mr. Robert C. Brooks in the work on Switzer- land with which we are dealing. Mr. Brooks begins by noting that the Referendum in Switzerland does not prevent reform when reform is needed and also desired by the People. During a period of forty years in Switzerland there were twenty-one amendments passed by the Swiss Federal Legislature, and all but five were accepted ; that is, sixteen were passed. During the same time only two amendments were added to the Constitu- tion of the United States. There will, of course, be a conflict of view as to whether the Veto of the People as a whole was wisely or unwisely exercised ; but it may be said with certainty that the tendency of the Vote of the People was not anarchical, or wild, or Socialistic. On the contrary, it was, we hold, inspired by a wise and yet not obstinate conservatism.

What one may call necessary legislation was never vetoed. When economic and financial subjects were referred to the People they were dealt with with great reason and moderation. The People as a whole showed no tendency to be attracted by unsound finance. But this is not all. A French Swiss jurist has pointed out that the benefits of the Referendum are to be seen not so much in the Bills actually vetoed as in the phantom pile of Bills which were never even introduced into the Legislative Assembly because it was quite clearly perceived that they- would be referred to the People, and that on. Referendum they would be promptly rejected. Log-rolling is a poor business at Berne because the nicest arrangements of " Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours " are specially liable to dreadful exposure at the Poll of the People.

We have pointed out elsewhere the very remarkable fact that at a Poll of the People the proposed institution of " Le droit du travail " was knocked on the head by an immense Ijority of the electors. Here was a signal proof that the danger of socialistic legislation is much less in a constitution fitted

with the popular veto than in one which does not possess it. Another very remarkable proof of the value .of the Referendum is to be found in the voting on the amendment of the Constitution for increasing the military obligations of the

4wiss people—the scheme submitted to • the people in 1907. " Under the Bill submitted the burden and obligation placed on

the Swiss peasant both as regards recruit training and annual training were very nearly doubled. The electors had in effect put -before them the question "Do you want your sons to be taken away from the farm or the workshop for twice the time --they are now taken away, which is already inconvenient enough I and do you yourself want in future to be taken away from your " business for double the time, although you already find it very inconvenient to put in your annual field exercises 7 On top of all this, do you want to pay more taxes for an increased e Corvee ? "

Very naturally, the Socialists who were bitterly opposed to the Bill thought themselves certain of victory when they = demanded that the Bill should go to Referendum. The -Swiss -people, they argued, were not likely to-put their neeks into such a noose as that and at the same time increase the power of the oligarchy, and all for nothing. Yet when the Bill went to the Po ,-the Swiss Democracy, to its eternal honour, passed the "Bill by a handsome. majority. Democracy is neither base• nor foolish, whatever the Lenins on the one hand or the Reac- tionaries on the other may tell us.

Dealing with the general results of the Referendum since its formal introduction in 1874, Mr. Brooks gives the following blear and precise summary:

" Between 1874 and the end of 1908, 881 laws and resolu- tions subject to referendum were passed lay the Swis8 federal legislature. Of these, thirty were brought -to a peppier vote, and nineteen were rejected. Stated in bare statistical form, therefore, the net effect of the referendum was te invalidate slightly more than 7 per cent, of that part of the legislative .output to which it applied. During this period a number of weighty measures were passed against which petitions were not even circulated."

That is surely a very striking argument against the suggestion that the Referendum destroys the sense of parliamentary responsibility,and side-traoks the representatives of the People. On the suggestion that -the Referendum is dangerous because people won't go to the Poll, the facts and figures given by Mr. Brooks are very striking. When the passage of a measure is considered a dead certainty, the voters no doubt don't take the trouble to vote ; but when there is anything important to be deoided the voting very often exceeds 70 per cent. of the Eke- - torate—a most notable -fact. For example, in the ease of the nationalization of the railways, 76.6 per oent. of the people voted. Remember in this context that at ordinary elections in Switzerland, that is, elections to choose repre- sentatives or candidates for office, as a rule only 66.3 per cent, of the qualified voters go to the Poll. After noting that according to American ideas the cost of the Swiss Referendum is incredibly low (something between 6 and 13 centimes per voter), Mr. Brooks deals most ably with the most important of the stock arguments against the Poll of the People :-- " A stock argument against the referendum is that it reduces the legislature's sense of responsibility by placing final decision in the hands of the people. It is a peculiarly difficult argument to discuss, -inasmuch as there is no opportunity to observe the conduct of the same legislature acting both with and without the referendum. One of the greatest authorities on the subject, himself for more than twenty years a representative of the Swiss people, expresses the opinion that the referendum -prevented but little - good that -we wished to do, but simply by standing as a warning before us, averted much evil. . • In spite of possible backward movements, it did not condemn democracy to a halt, but has given steadiness to progress -itself.' Professor Rappard admits that there may have been - some decline of political standards since the adoption of the initiative and referendum, but attributes it to other causes, chiefly the anonymous, impersonal committee form of pro- cedure which prevails in all Swiss legislatures.' Fear of the popular veto should tend to make legislators timid rather than .reckless. If so, the -Initiative may be used to galvanize them into activity. In any event an otherwise popular legislator's support of measures which fall under the ban of the referendum is not likely to cause his defeat at the ensuing election. Acoording to "a humorist quoted by Professor Borgeaud, ' the Swiss are a singular people : they disown their representatives, and then they re-elect them.' Another argument against direct legislation was that it would make party government impossible. The political atom would supersede the organiza- tion ; purely mechanical combinations changing with each issue would dominate the political stage. Without stopping here to discuss the beneficence or maleficence of party govern- ment, it is certain that in Switzerland the initiative and referendum have not caused the break-up of political organizations. On the other hand, they have increased somewhat the influence of minority parties. A great many authorities on direct legislation urge Its high value as a means of political education. In campaigns for the choice of officials, personalities necessarily play some part, but in initiative and referendum campaigns there is a Marl/num opportunity to hear and decide solely on the basis of the facts and prmciples involved. The Swiss people have repeatedly shown the ability to learn and to change their opinion upon questions submitted to them. Thus, while the proposals were not identical- in the two cases, there was a distinct reversal of popular attitude on the railroad bills of 1891 and 1898, on the uniform industrial legislation amend- ments cat 1894 and 1908, and on the army amendment and army bill of 1895 and 1907, respectively. Admitting the difficulty of deducing general tendencies from so extensive a field of legislation, it seems to be generally agreed- that the Swiss people, ere inclined to react strongly against initiative and referendum measures that savour of extravagance or burrocreey. Professor Rappard also points out their hostility to ideological legislation '—that is, to legislation grounded solely or mainly on abstract conceptions of justice,' as, for example, the right to work ' initiative. Certainly the refer- endum has at times betrayed a conservative tendency which dismayed its friends. Thirty years ago Sir Henry Maine indulged in an explanatiore of this tendency, particularly as shown in connection with labour legislation. In the light of Switzerland's subsequent pregreas toward social legislation apd industrial democracy, his theory appears more ingenious than convincing. Direct legislation in Switzerland hhs not realized all the extravagant anticipations of it'd friends. But on the other hand it has completely falsified the dismal prophecies of chaos and revolution uttered by the conservatives of an earlier period. It has become a vital and freely functionits part ef the Swiss political organism. Although changes aka sometimes suggested in the form and application of the imtiative and referendum, there has lqng @Mee ceased to be any funda- mental opposition to them in Switzerland."

'No words of ours are needed to support this admirable plea for the Referendum. We will only add that, taken as a whole, the experience of the United States is entirely consistent with Mr. Brooks' account of the working of the Referendum in Switzerland. The only difference is that in America the 'Poll of the People works under an alias, or rather under several aliases, while in Switzerland it operates in its own name.