| There have been made some studies in Switzerland [1][2] why turnout is usually somewhere between 40 and 45%. Main reasons: * Not interested. * Not competent enough to make a decision. * Social isolation. * Frustration. * Some participate in other ways than voting. Some other interesting facts from 2015 [3]: * 30% turnout of young people between 18 and 30 years. * 67% turnout of old people between 65 and 74 years. * 53% of men participate, 46% of women participate. * Old women do participate less than young women, possibly because Switzerland introduced votes for women very late in 1971. * The concordance system [4] leads to less fluctuations in the composition of the government. It's not like in the US, where you have only 2 completely different parties fighting each other. So, less changes, less reasons to go to vote. * Many people are happy with the status quo. Another reason to skip voting. [1] https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/schweiz/warum-die-mehrheit-sc... [2] https://www.beobachter.ch/politik/wahlen-2019/wahlen-2019-wi... [3] https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/eidgenoessische-wahlen-2019/wahle... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concordance_system |
Despite that, since 1971 there have been 5 female presidents from 3 different parties: Calmy-Rey, Dreifuss, Leuthard, Sommaruga, Widmer-Schlumpf (some having served more than once)
* as they have since 1403 https://www.ai.ch/politik/landsgemeinde