Related to Referendum

Mandatory referendumA mandatory referendum, also known as an obligatory referendum, is a referendum that is legally required to be held under specific circumstances. This is in contrast to an optional referendum, which comes from either by public or legislative request. The actions that require mandatory referendums are set by law and normally concern major governmental actions or matters of large public significance.

Popular initiativeA popular initiative, or people's initiative (also citizens' initiative, or civic initiative) is a form of direct democracy by which a petition meeting certain hurdles can force a legal procedure on a proposition. In direct initiative, the proposition is put directly to a plebiscite or referendum, also called a popular initiated referendum or citizen-initiated referendum.

Voting in SwitzerlandVoting in Switzerland (called votation) is the process by which Swiss citizens make decisions about governance and electofficials. The history of voting rights in Switzerland mirrors the complexity of the nation itself. The polling stations are opened on Saturdays and Sunday mornings but most people vote by post in advance. At noon on Sunday (Abstimmungssonntag in German, Dimanche de votation in French), voting ends and the results are usually known during the afternoon.

Optional referendumThe optional referendum is a referendum which comes from a request by governmental authorities or the public. The best-known type of optional referendum is the popular initiative to request a law, and the popular (or abrogative) referendum to repeal a law. The collection of signatures from the public is normally necessary to organize an optional referendum, but some jurisdictions allow government agencies to request for a referendum also. It is a form of direct democracy.

Direct democracyDirect democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy model which occurs in the majority of established democracies.

SwitzerlandCountry in Central Europe Swiss Confederation Name in official languages and Latin German:Schweizerische EidgenossenschaftFrench:Confédération suisseItalian:Confederazione SvizzeraRomansh:Confederaziun svizraLatin:Confoederatio helvetica Flag Coat of arms Motto: (unofficial)"Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno""One for all, all for one"Anthem: "Swiss Psalm"Show globeShow map of EuropeLocation of Switzerland (green)in Europe (green and dark grey)CapitalNone (de jure); Bern (de facto)Federal cityBernLargest cityZurichOfficial languagesGerman (62%), French (23%), Italian (8%), Romansh (0.5%)Nationality (2024)72.6% Swiss27.4% foreign nationalsReligion (2024) 54.7% Christianity 30% Catholicism 18.7% Protestantism 6% other Christian 36.8% no religion 6% Islam 1.5% other religions 0.9% unanswered DemonymsEnglish: SwissGerman: Schweizer/SchweizerinFrench: Suisse/SuissesseItalian: svizzero/svizzera or elvetico/elveticaRomansh: Svizzer/SvizraGovernmentFederal assembly-independent directorial republic• Federal Councillors Guy Parmelin (President)Ignazio Cassis (Vice president)Karin Keller-SutterAlbert RöstiÉlisabeth Baume-SchneiderBeat JansMartin Pfister• Federal Chancellor Viktor Rossi LegislatureFederal Assembly• Upper houseCouncil of States• Lower houseNational CouncilHistory• Founded 1 August 1291• Sovereignty recognised (Peace of Westphalia) 24 October 1648• Federal Treaty 7 August 1815• Federal state 12 September 1848 Area • Total41,291 km2 (15,943 sq mi) (132nd)• Water (%)4Population• 2026 estimate 9,154,242 (99th)• 2015 census 8,327,126• Density207/km2 (536.1/sq mi) (67th)GDP (PPP)2026 estimate• Total $960.599 billion (37th)• Per capita $105,680 (6th)GDP (nominal)2026 estimate• Total $1.147 trillion (20th)• Per capita $126,177 (3rd)Gini (2023) 31.5medium inequalityHDI (2023) 0.970very high (2nd)CurrencySwiss franc (CHF)Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)• Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)Date formatdd.mm.yyyy (AD)Calling code+41ISO 3166 codeCHInternet TLD.ch, .swiss Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located at the intersection of Central, Western, and Southern Europe.

Representative democracyType of democracy principled on elected representation The House of Commons of the United Kingdom Part of the Politics seriesDemocracy HistoryTheoryMeasuring / Indices / Rankings Types Anticipatory Athenian Cellular Consensus Conservative Cosmopolitan Defensive Deliberative Direct Economic Electronic Empowered Ethnic Grassroots Guided Hybrid regime Illiberal Inclusive Industrial Jacksonian Jeffersonian Liberal Liquid Majoritarian Media Monitory Multiparty Non-partisan Oral Participatory Pluralist Popular Procedural Radical Representative Religious Buddhist Christian Islamic Jewish Mormon Sectarian Semi Social Socialist Sociocracy Sovereign Soviet Substantive Supermajority Totalitarian Whole-process people's Workplace Methods Campaign Consultation Demonstration Election By-election Direct Indirect Primary Recall Snap Systems Legislature Opinion poll Parliament Petition Popular assembly Participatory budgeting Referendum Deliberative Initiative Popular War Sortition Citizens' assembly Jury Voting Region Africa Asia Europe Americas Middle East and North Africa Related topics Anarchism Anti-authoritarianism Criticism of democracy Democracy and economic growth Democracy promotion Democracy-Dictatorship Index Democratic backsliding Democratic capitalism Democratic centralism Democratic confederalism Democratic consolidation Democratic deficit Democratic peace theory Democratic republic Democratic resilience Democratic socialism Democratic transition Democratization Electoral competition International Day of Democracy Kleroterion Liberalism Libertarianism Majoritarianism Majority rule Median voter theorem Motion Ochlocracy Nomination rules Peaceful transition of power Political equality Polyarchy Populism Post-democracy Proportional representation Right to petition Right to protest Right to candidacy Right to vote Territorial peace theory Tyranny of the majority Waves of democracy third wave of autocracy Wisdom of the crowd Politics portalvte Part of the Politics seriesBasic forms of government List of forms · List of countries Source of power Democracy (rule by many) Demarchy Direct Economic Guided Liberal Representative Social Socialist Others Oligarchy (rule by few) Anocracy Aristocracy Broligarchy Corporatocracy Gerontocracy Imagocracy Kleptocracy Kritarchy Matriarchy Meritocracy Particracy Patriarchy Plutocracy Stratocracy Technocracy Theocracy Autocracy (rule by one) Autocratic legalism Despotism Dictatorship military Tyranny Anarchy (rule by none) Anarchism Free association Stateless Power ideology MonarchyRepublic (socio-political ideologies) Absolute Communist Constitutional Directorial Legalist Presidential Parliamentary Semi-parliamentary Semi-presidential AuthoritarianLibertarian (socio-economic ideologies) Anarchism Colonialism Communism Despotism Distributism Fascism Feudalism Islamism Socialism Totalitarianism inverted Tribalism ReligiousSecular State religion Secular state Separation of church and state State atheism GlobalLocal (geo-cultural ideologies) City-state Intergovernmental organisation National government World government Nationalism Internationalism Globalism Power structure Unitarism Unitary state Empire Principality Branches Unified state power Fusion of powers Separation of powers Client state Associated state Dependent territory Dominion Protectorate Puppet state Puppet monarch Satellite state Self-governing colony Tributary state Buffer state Vassal state Viceroyalty Federalism Confederation Devolution Federation Superstate Supranational union International relations Small power Middle power Regional power Emerging power Great power Superpower Related Administrative division Centralized government Democratic backsliding Democracy indices Democratic transition Democratisation Politics portalvte Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy or electoral democracy, is a type of democracy where elected delegates represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy.

CaliforniaCalifornia is a state in the Western United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. With a population of over 39 million across an area of 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), it is the most populous U.S. state and the third largest by land area.

Opinion pollAn opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence intervals. A person who conducts polls is referred to as a pollster.

PolicyPolicy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an organization. Policies can assist in both subjective and objective decision making.

VotingVoting is the process of making collective decisions by means of submitting and then adding up individual choices. The choice voted upon is often an election of a member or members to conduct political representation, but the object of a vote can be anything, for example what kind of food to buy or whether a defendant is innocent or guilty.

Electoral districtAn electoral district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, circumscription, electorate, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provide the voters therein with representation in a legislature or other polity.

PreferendumRelated word or term.