Democracy Newsletter August 2022

Dear subscribers to the SWI Democracy Newsletter,

Was there a slump in democracy politics during the punishingly hot summer? Absolutely not! The pressure of Russia’s war of aggression on one of the largest democracies in Europe, Ukraine, has gripped the world. Authoritarian regimes from Beijing to Caracas and from Budapest to Ankara are considering their options in the face of the major security upheavals triggered by Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.

And where things are still reasonably democratic, people are asking completely new questions about the ability of their own societies to resist and develop. This is also the case in Switzerland – one of the most established and successful democracies worldwide over the past 50 years. For in Switzerland, too, large sections of the population remain excluded from voting and electoral rights. “Switzerland is thus giving something away”, reckons politics professor Marc Bühlmann in the opening article of our new series on “inclusive democracy”.

Staying with Switzerland, my colleagues Renat Kuenzi and Carlo Pisani teamed up with historian and political scientist Claude Longchamp and visited eight locations throughout the country – all of them cities – where citizens decisively advanced Swiss democracy. I would like to recommend this very special “Tour de Suisse” to those of you who will be attending the tenth World Conference on People’s Rights, the “2022 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy”, in Lucerne at the end of September. SWI swissinfo.ch is the event’s international media partner.

Current democracy issues from all over the world will be discussed at the Global Forum. One such topic is the direct democracy constitutional process in Chile, in which Switzerland is also providing input.

Our Democracy Newsletter keeps you informed. You are also cordially invited to participate in our debates in ten languages. Join in!

With kind regards,

Bruno Kaufmann

Global democracy correspondent and coordinator of the SWI democracy editorial team