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by m_mueller
1617 days ago
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At its core the modern Swiss political system was modelled after the US, albeit with changes that made it better suited for the Swiss landscape: Splitting executive power to 7 ministers (because Swiss just generally don't trust anyone enough to give full presidential power) and adding direct democracy at national level [1]. Later, Switzerland also changed from majority (as the US still uses) to proportional elections. In general, the Swiss political system is much more dynamic, with the constitution being constantly amended. That's what I meant with 'mini-US' - culturally it's certainly not super close, but I'd also say it's a bit closer to the US than other Western European countries, with the economy being a fair bit more 'liberal' (in the classic sense, i.e. more freedom to businesses with lower taxes and weaker worker protections), but it's somewhere in the middle between Germany and the US in those regards. [1] https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/directdemocracy/swiss-us-democr... |
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On the German side, there is a high sense of Community-First, where your neighbor will tell on you if you don't live according to regulations. This is opposite to individual-first mentality of the US where you won't tell on your neighbor for shooting fireworks in the back yard, in hopes that they don't call in on you for a noise violation later (for example). I imagine this mentality difference is the reason why direct democracy would not work in the US since everyone would pull the blanket to their end.
In terms of EU countries most similar to US, Ireland is most similar in terms of liberal economic policy while Germany is most similar in terms of culture imo.