Europe is in financial turmoil. The debt crisis has taken hold, Greece and Italy have national debt problems. Both are struggling to apply austerity measures. Italy has has its debt rating reduced so it will cost more to borrow. And here I am in Switzerland which is suffering a little from the high franc but is basically doing all right. Soon there will be the national elections and the campaigning is politely going on. Everyone is being reasonable and fair and slightly low key. The voters are preparing to make balanced choices and the support from the electorate for the structure of Swiss direct democracy is overwhelming. People are happy with the system, happy with the government, accept when their candidate loses as being a fair expression of democracy in action. The government has public support, the police have public support, people are basically satisfied. In other countries capitalism is at the apex of the pyramid scheme; in Switzerland it is business as usual.
Why is that ?
Maybe capitalist democracies only work well up to a certain size ? Above 10 million inhabitants and it all goes down the drain. Or just what are the Swiss doing so right while everyone else is doing it so wrong ?
Liam Mor's Blog