Podcasts - 27.01.2025 - 08:00
The idea that Switzerland and the USA are "sister republics" dates back to the 18th century. Shortly after the American Declaration of Independence, the Bernese scholar Jean-Rodolphe Vautravers wrote to none other than Benjamin Franklin: 'Let us be united as sister republics'. On the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation in 1991, the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. also invoked this sisterly bond. An accompanying volume stated: Since 1776, political developments in the two countries have often paralleled each other, and at historic turning points, the constitution of one country has served as a model for that of the other.
Many people are familiar with the model character of the American constitution, and it is obvious when we compare our bicameral system with that of the USA. But to what extent was Switzerland also modelled on America? In this episode we shed light on this with Professor Stefan G. Schmid, who - after working in Zurich, Bern and Berkeley - has held a chair in public law at the University of St. Gallen since 2019. In his habilitation thesis, he focuses on a particular Swiss export: the referendum.
Book reference:
Stefan G. Schmid. The Referendum in the USA. A study in constitutional history and constitutional law with special consideration of historical references to Swiss referendum democracy. DIKE/Nomos, 2022.
For illustration:
Copyright: public domain
Description in Stefan's book, p.165: Switzerland offers the referendum to the world ('Le Referendum en Suisse'). Below from left: the personifications of the USA, the German Reich, the French Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Author: Daniel Carter Beard
Published in Cosmpolitan magazine in 1893.
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