THE SWISS DEMOCRACY DICTIONARY

A comprehensive guide to the Swiss system and what makes it work!

Each entry provides one to three pages of clear accessible explanation, making the book equally useful to the curious layperson, as well as academics, constitutionalists, politicians and anyone interested in how democracy can work differently.

Is it just a party change that is required or is it a system change?

You can make your own decision, however one thing is for sure with Switzerland being one of the most successful and prosperous countries in the world, consistently ranking across a remarkable range of measures, from low crime rate to quality of life, from competitiveness and innovation to economic performance; and from political stability and institutional trust this dictionary will tell you why and will hold up a mirror to your own system.

I will guarantee that you will ask yourself incredulously what system you have been living under because whilst there is no perfect system, to my mind having lived under it for almost two decades Switzerland does it extremely well and its citizens according to various rankings are amongst the happiest in the world.

This dictionary follows – other books I have written on the subject two non-fiction and four novels, and is meant to be an easy guide and reference edition to a system that gives citizens the power to decide and the inconvenient truth that when citizens have the tools of direct democracy in their hands society gets better, it elevates rather than degrades.

That’s not to say Switzerland is perfect; no country is, but there has to be a reason why it ranks so highly in so many global indices.

In just 72 entries this 365-page guide reveals the reason why.

Warning: reading this book may frustrate you — and inspire you in equal measure.

There is no perfect way to govern. But believe me, there is a better way.

This book is the result of years of research, observation and experience from within Switzerland — a country that has been practising a remarkably different form of democracy for generations.

What is well understood in Switzerland remains surprisingly little known beyond its borders. Now, for the first time, I want to reveal what the Swiss already know to a world where democracy is struggling — and invite you to ask a simple question:

Could there be a better way?