What applies today.
Fedlex and Aargau’s official collection define the real baseline. Political proposals are not presented as current law.
Back to the homepage
Literature and evidence
Sources and criticism
The sources help test particular assumptions. They do not automatically support the proposal as a whole. Each entry explains how it is used.
01 · Reading rule
How the sources are used
What has been observed.
Comparative work provides mechanisms, risks and criteria, but no automatic political endorsement.
What must be protected.
Fundamental and human rights constrain every local majority, transition strategy and emergency power.
What Deluism proposes.
The dossiers remain political discussion drafts. Sources support partial assumptions; they do not prove a complete ideology.
02 · Bibliography
Source catalogue
Bundesverfassung der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft
Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft · FedlexLegal baseline for fundamental rights, political rights, the rule of law, subsidiarity and municipal autonomy. It describes the present starting point, not the Deluist target model.
Open original sourceObligationenrecht · Art. 828–926 Genossenschaft
Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft · FedlexExisting Swiss legal form for collective self-help. It provides an immediately usable transition path but does not by itself amount to wider economic democracy.
Open original sourceVerfassung des Kantons Aargau
Kanton AargauCantonal baseline for fundamental rights, popular rights, municipalities and public responsibilities.
Open original sourceGesetz über die Einwohnergemeinden
Kanton AargauGoverns present municipal bodies, competences, supervision and finance. The roadmap distinguishes measures possible within this framework from reforms requiring legal change.
Open original sourceGesetz über die politischen Rechte
Kanton AargauProcedures for cantonal and municipal elections, votes and municipal assemblies.
Open original sourceStatement on the Cooperative Identity
International Cooperative AllianceInternational reference for voluntary membership, democratic member control, autonomy, education and cooperation among cooperatives.
Open original sourcePromotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, No. 193
International Labour OrganizationInternationally agreed framework for supportive cooperative policy without state capture or legal discrimination.
Open original sourceBeyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems
Elinor Ostrom · Nobel Prize LectureEmpirical and institutional reference for polycentric governance and self-governed commons. It also cautions against universal one-size-fits-all solutions.
Open original sourceEvaluation Guidelines for Representative Deliberative Processes
OECDMinimum standards and evaluation criteria for representative deliberation: purpose, representation, learning, independence, impact and public evaluation.
Open original sourceParticipatory Budgeting
World BankComparative practice source on the opportunities, limits and procedural questions of participatory budgeting.
Open original sourceInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
United Nations · OHCHRNon-negotiable human-rights framework for political participation, expression, assembly, association and equal protection of the law.
Open original sourceInternational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
United Nations · OHCHRHuman-rights reference for work, social security, health, education and participation in cultural life.
Open original sourceStadtidee Aarau · Pilot 2023/24
Stadt AarauLocal primary source for Aarau’s CHF 50,000 participatory-budget pilot. It grounds the model calculation but does not endorse its proposed scale.
Open original sourcePolitikplan 2026–2030 und Budget 2026
Stadt AarauOfficial reference for the city’s budgeted turnover. The practice calculation uses it only as a denominator and claims no political endorsement.
Open original sourceBundesgesetz über Fusion, Spaltung, Umwandlung und Vermögensübertragung
Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft · FedlexLegal framework for transformations and asset transfers. Relevant to an employee buyout, but no substitute for case-specific tax and legal review.
Open original sourceBusiness succession: a practical guide for SMEs
SECO · SME PortalPractical baseline for valuation, financing and process risks in business succession. It does not advocate Deluist ownership policy.
Open original sourceThe Tyranny of Structurelessness
Jo FreemanA classic challenge to the assumption that informal groups become egalitarian without formal structures. It supports transparent mandates and accountability over romanticised structurelessness.
Open original sourceThe Use of Knowledge in Society
F. A. Hayek · American Economic ReviewA strong challenge to central planning: relevant knowledge is distributed, local and often tacit. Deluism must show that federation handles this problem rather than merely renaming it.
Open original sourceEquality of What?
Amartya Sen · The Tanner Lectures on Human ValuesConceptual reference for the essay on freedom and material security; especially pp. 218–219.
Open original sourceGeneral Comment No. 29 · States of Emergency (Article 4)
UN Human Rights Committee · CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.11Human-rights reference for the essay on emergency powers, especially paragraphs 1–5. The proposed allocation of powers is the essay's own.
Open original source03 · Claim evidence
The principal connections.
The cooperative is a present transition path.
Legal basis: Code of Obligations, Articles 828–926. Democratic quality: ICA and ILO R193.
Local self-government requires superior rights.
Legal and human-rights baseline: Federal Constitution, Aargau Constitution and ICCPR.
Participation requires representation and impact review.
Comparative frame: OECD guidelines and World Bank practice on participatory budgeting.
Polycentric order is possible but context-dependent.
Ostrom’s research supports neither state centralism nor market monism and warns against one universal institution.
04 · Criticism that changes the draft
Where the proposal remains vulnerable
Structurelessness does not create equality.
Objection: Informal networks can govern less transparently than formal bodies.
Consequence: Every working group needs a public mandate, rotation, minutes and recallable responsibility. “Flat” is not evidence of quality.
Read FreemanNo centre knows everyone’s daily reality.
Objection: Prices and local experience contain distributed knowledge a planning council cannot completely collect.
Consequence: Provision goals must remain narrow; local units choose means, report shortages and may justify deviations. Whether this is enough remains open.
Read HayekA pilot does not prove system-wide capacity.
Objection: A CHF 50,000 participatory budget says little about billion-franc budgets, crises or distributional conflict.
Consequence: A local example cannot establish a general theory. Claims about an entire economic order require further evidence about coordination and its response to conflict.
Examine the Aarau pilot05 · Challenge
The limits of the evidence
A reference shows where an argument comes from; it does not settle the argument. Compare the proposed institutions with the objections and the limits identified for each source.