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  3. If you ask a Swiss person who their president is, they likely won’t be able to tell you. And it’s not because they are political

If you ask a Swiss person who their president is, they likely won’t be able to tell you. And it’s not because they are political

admin2018-06-06  29
问题     If you ask a Swiss person who their president is, they likely won’t be able to tell you. And it’s not because they are politically apathetic or uninformed. In Switzerland, citizens don’t vote for their president.
    In this small alpine country, citizens elect a new Parliament every four years, and the Parliament chooses a group of seven councilors from different parties. They are the head of state. The presidency rotates among the members every year. But the keystone of Swiss democracy is the regular use of referendums, in which citizens vote on everything from their town’s new sports center to the country’s immigration policy.
    As Michael Bechtel, professor of political science at the University of St. Gallen, explains, in a direct democracy there is a stronger incentive for political elites to take into account citizen preferences when making choices. It might sound like a panacea for Occupy Wall Street types, but this is actually a complex system with both advantages and disadvantages.
    Voting in Switzerland is easy. With no need to register, every citizen receives a ballot for each vote, which can be returned by mail.
    And decisions aren’t final. If a law has already been passed, people can still overturn it by getting 50,000 signatures in 100 days. The bill then has to be voted on by the public. And if that wasn’t enough, Swiss citizens can also suggest their own laws by "popular initiative." If 100,000 people ask for a change in the constitution, the Parliament is obligated to discuss it and submit the proposal to a popular vote.
    To be sure, there are pitfalls. Popular votes can lead to a tyranny of the majority, making it easy to discriminate against small groups. In 2009, a law was passed with 57 percent of the votes in favor of banning the construction of mosque towers even if the government emphatically opposed the ban. This system also slows down the law-making process and makes it more difficult to get on the same page with international rulings like those of the European Union.
    Could other nations benefit from direct democracy? Maybe, but the preconditions are high. Besides being a well-educated electorate with basic rights, they must be able to see past party lines." It comes down to how much you trust your fellow citizens," says Klaus Dingwerth, political scientist and fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute.
According to Michael Bechtel, direct democracy ______.
选项 A、makes political elites more likely to consider citizen preferences
B、makes citizen preferences a top priority in the decision making process
C、can solve the problem of Occupy Wall Street types
D、is a well-functioning system regardless of its shortcomings
答案A
解析 细节题。根据题干定位到第三段第一句：...in a direct democracy there is a stronger incentive for political elites to take into account citizen preferences when making choices．“直接民主让政治精英有更强烈的动机在作出选择时将公民的意愿考虑在内。”A项选项与原文同义，故为正确选项。B项选项中的top priority原文中并未体现，所以可排除。根据It might sound like a panacea(灵丹妙药)for Occupy Wall Street types…可知，C项选项的说法太过于肯定，与原文不符，因此可排除。D项选项的说法侧重“优点”，而原文意思为“优缺点并重”，故可排除。
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