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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

admin2016-01-29  74
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 refer-endums, 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.
Why does the author say that Swiss people may not be able to tell the name of their president?
选项 A、Because Swiss people are indifferent to politics.
B、Because Swiss people are inaccessible to political information.
C、Because the election of Swiss president has nothing to do with the Swiss.
D、Because president of Switzerland is not directly elected by the Swiss.
答案D
解析 细节题。根据题干定位到第一段第三句：In Switzerland，citizens don’t vote for theirpresident．可以推断出瑞士总统并不是由瑞士公民直接投票选出来的，所以[D]选项正确。[A]选项说“瑞士人不关心政治”，由原文中it’s not because they are politically apathetic or unin—formed可知该说法错误，可排除，同理也可排除[B]选项。[C]选项“总统的选举与瑞士公民无关”，这一点在原文中并未体现，故也无从推断，可排除。
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