All the citizens of canton Glarus have a vote at the Landsgemeinde, witnessed this year by the Austrian vice chancellor

Switzerland has been experiencing a wave of political tourism of late, with foreign politicians, particularly from Germany and Austria, showing an interest in its direct democracy. So, is the Swiss model becoming another Swiss export?
German-speaking neighbours have been to Switzerland twice this year. Back in March a delegation from the German state of Baden-Württemberg came to follow the federal elections first-hand.

Then in May the Austrian vice chancellor, Michael Spindelegger, travelled with Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter to the Landsgemeinde, or citizens’ assembly, which meets once a year in the square of the town of Glarus to vote on issues with a show of hands. In June, canton Aargau joined Baden-Württemberg in organising a democracy conference in Aarau.

During Sunday’s national vote the minister president of Rheinland-Pfalz, Kurt Beck, plans to be on hand, and will follow it with a working visit to the Aarau Centre for Democracy Studies.

“It’s not just our EU neighbours who are interested in the Swiss model of democracy, but also countries like Uruguay,” Uwe Serdült, a political scientist with the Aarau Centre, told swissinfo.ch. “A delegation of Latin American countries will visit us soon in connection with a trip organised by Presence Switzerland.”

According to a new study by the Centre, up until 1920 Switzerland was the only country in Europe to practise direct democracy. Within western Europe today, national popular votes arising from a collection of signatures are still only possible in Liechtenstein, Italy and San Marino.

Elsewhere they take place in the United States, Canada and Australia, and from the 1990s onwards, in 14 post-Communist European countries, for example, Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary, as well as Uruguay, Columbia and Venezuela.

“It’s no coincidence that Uruguay is described as ‘the Switzerland of Latin America’,” said study co-author Serdült.

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http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/foreign_affairs/The_run_on_direct_democracy.html?cid=33536622