Swiss Popular Initiative 'Against Mass Immigration'. Arguments for Direct Democracy

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Politics - Region: Western Europe, grade: 1,9, Reutlingen University (ESB Business School), language: English, abstract: On the 9th of February the Swiss population decided with a slight majority of 50,3% to limit immigration into their country. Due to this development, the political system 'direct democracy' is discussed more critically in Switzerland and also in Germany and other countries. Because of the decision of the Swiss population to limit immigration into the country, more and more people point out that direct democracy is not an efficient political system to further the prosperity of the inhabitants. Furthermore, according to many critics, the decision to limit immigration has extremely negative effects on the economy of Switzerland. According to their election programs, more and more German political parties like to integrate more direct democracy into the existant system of representative democracy in Germany. For example 'Die Linke', the 'SPD' or new political parties like the 'AfD' are proponents of more direct democracy in Germany. Therefore, this essay will look at a number of arguments in favour of direct democracy.