[CaptainZapp]

I agree and you do raise a very important point.

One of the hall marks of the Swiss system is to push as much power as possible to as locally as possible.

Communities have a lot of power in their decision making as long as such decisions do not violate cantonal (state) or federal laws.

It demands, though, quite intense interaction with policies and referendums (there are usually about three referendums about various subjects on local, cantonal and federal level per year) and that said, I would wish that there would be more engagement and a higher ratio of voters actually going to the polls.