What applies today.
Fedlex and Aargau’s official collection define the real baseline. Political proposals are not presented as current law.
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Evidence trail · Version 1.3
A claim is not yet evidence.
I separate current law, research, political standards and my own normative choices here. Where a source supports only part of an argument, the limitation is stated explicitly.
01 · Reading rule
Four roles, no theatre of authority.
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
Citable, direct and findable.
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 source ↗Obligationenrecht · 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 source ↗Verfassung des Kantons Aargau
Kanton AargauCantonal baseline for fundamental rights, popular rights, municipalities and public responsibilities.
Open original source ↗Gesetz 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 source ↗Gesetz über die politischen Rechte
Kanton AargauProcedures for cantonal and municipal elections, votes and municipal assemblies.
Open original source ↗Statement on the Cooperative Identity
International Cooperative AllianceInternational reference for voluntary membership, democratic member control, autonomy, education and cooperation among cooperatives.
Open original source ↗Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, No. 193
International Labour OrganizationInternationally agreed framework for supportive cooperative policy without state capture or legal discrimination.
Open original source ↗Beyond 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 source ↗Evaluation Guidelines for Representative Deliberative Processes
OECDMinimum standards and evaluation criteria for representative deliberation: purpose, representation, learning, independence, impact and public evaluation.
Open original source ↗Participatory Budgeting
World BankComparative practice source on the opportunities, limits and procedural questions of participatory budgeting.
Open original source ↗International 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 source ↗International 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 source ↗Stadtidee 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 source ↗Politikplan 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 source ↗Bundesgesetz 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 source ↗Business 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 source ↗The 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 source ↗The 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 source ↗03 · 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
Three objections that do not disappear into the small print.
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 Freeman ↗No 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 Hayek ↗A 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: The practice calculation is labelled as a scenario, includes stop rules and may scale only after public evaluation.
Examine the Aarau pilot ↗05 · Challenge
Sources must be allowed to contradict.
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.