A Sustainable Democracy with a Future
11 January 2025
Amid authoritarian monarchies, 25 cantons in the middle of Europe with a desire for freedom founded a democratic state in 1848. Modern Switzerland emerged from the old Confederation and laid the foundations for an unprecedented economic boom.
In the German-language publication, the author shows what it takes to build a liberal democracy based on the rule of law. However, he also points out that a liberal society cannot be taken for granted.
The commitment of citizens nurtures it. Although democracies are under pressure worldwide, Switzerland is an example of building and sustaining a liberal, democratic and prosperous society partly through direct democracy, which is not old-fashioned but a modern and visionary concept.
(Thomas Lötscher, Demokratie mit Zukunft, Die erschaffung der modernen Schweiz. Thun, 2022)