Premise
Where this draft begins.
Political decisions should be made as close as possible to those affected. Higher levels coordinate common tasks without turning themselves into permanent centres.
Political direction
What should concretely change.
- 01
Build local assemblies with real budget and initiative rights.
- 02
Control delegates through binding mandates, rotation and recall.
- 03
Organise federal levels strictly by task rather than hierarchy.
- 04
Make public decision data and understandable accountability mandatory.
Safeguards
What must not be lost.
Fundamental rights are not subject to local votes.
Time, accessibility and compensation make participation real.
Expertise advises; it does not replace democratic decision-making.
Open research
Not yet answered.
How large can assembly units become?
How should justice and independent oversight be organised federally?
The institutional proposal.
How can power move closer to affected people without surrendering rights, capacity or an equal political voice to local majorities and informal elites?
01 · Institutional model
Subsidiarity with reasons
Every task begins at the lowest workable level. Moving it upward requires public proof that local capacity, cross-border effects or equal rights demand it.
Competences expire periodically instead of silently becoming permanent.Three democratic channels
Elected parliaments provide continuity, open assemblies enable initiative and scrutiny, and civic lotteries address complex or deadlocked questions.
No channel decides everything; handovers and vetoes require mutual justification.Paid political time
Participation includes time credits, childcare, accessible venues and translation. Sortition counters the permanent overrepresentation of resource-rich groups.
Reports measure social composition and actual influence, not only attendance.Rights and audit control
Independent courts protect rights; audit bodies track resources; ombuds offices and open data enable low-threshold complaints.
Oversight is distributed across levels so no single body can fully capture it.02 · Transition path
Steps towards implementation.
An Aargau municipality reserves a defined budget share for an inclusive participatory process with public evaluation.
- Level
- Municipality
- Evidence
- Breadth, implementation, cost and trust
- Reversal
- The pilot expires automatically; continuation requires a new municipal decision.
Sortition panels examine infrastructure or climate questions; authorities must accept, amend or publicly reject each recommendation.
- Level
- Municipality / canton
- Evidence
- Representativeness, information quality and response rate
- Reversal
- Manipulated processes may be challenged and redrawn.
Every public competence receives a purpose, level, financing route, review path and next review date in an open register.
- Level
- Canton
- Evidence
- Reviewed competences and complaint time
- Reversal
- Unrenewed additional powers return to the previous level.
Reforms connect local initiative with rights guarantees, recall and binding intermunicipal coordination.
- Level
- Canton / federation
- Evidence
- Concentration, equality, crisis response and participation
- Reversal
- Constitutional revisions remain referendable; emergency powers expire.
03 · Financing
How it could be funded.
- Reserve a participation share of existing administrative budgets.
- Treat paid political time as democratic infrastructure.
- Build shared open-source public digital services.
- Commission independent evaluation with a pre-published remit.
04 · Public measures
How to judge the results.
- Social representativeness
- Decision time
- Submissions implemented or answered
- Rights complaints and corrections
- Concentration of offices
- Trust and informed consent
05 · Conflict cases
The model under pressure.
A well-organised minority dominates every assembly.
Proposed response: Sortition, paid participation and transparent interests complement open assemblies.
Still unresolved: How much correction is legitimate without devaluing self-organisation?
A municipality violates minority rights.
Proposed response: Federal rights, direct complaint and suspensive judicial review limit the majority.
Still unresolved: How fast can review be without courts becoming substitute governments?
A crisis requires decisions within hours.
Proposed response: Predefined emergency mandates allow action, record measures and expire quickly without renewal.
Still unresolved: What information may temporarily remain confidential?
06 · Strong objections
More participation mainly benefits people with time and education.
That is true without material access. Payment, care, translation, sortition and offline routes therefore belong to the core.
Binding mandates prevent learning and compromise.
Mandates define purpose and boundaries, not every word. Departure requires reporting and renewed legitimacy.
07 · Sources