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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  30
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.
According to the passage, which of the following is true about voting in Switzerland?
选项 A、Everyone in Switzerland has the right to vote.
B、Swiss citizens can receive only one ballot through the Internet.
C、An established law can be abolished by popular vote.
D、Swiss people can establish their own laws by popular vote.
答案C
解析 细节题。根据题干定位到第四段和第五段。问题为“下列关于瑞士投票的说法，哪一项是正确的?”根据第五段中“And decisions aren’t final．If a law has already been passed，peoplecan still overturn it by getting 50，000 signatures in 100 days．”可知，[C]选项正确。[A]选项说“瑞士的每个人都有投票的权利”，而原文说的是citizens，所以该选项可排除。[B]选项说“瑞士公民只能通过互联网收到一张选票”，原文中并未提及瑞士公民收到选票的方式，所以[B]项可排除。由第五段的Swiss citizens can also suggest their own laws by“popular initiative”只能推断出瑞士公民可以通过全民决议建议自己的法律，但是法律最后的制定并不是由他们决定的，而且popular initiative并不等同于popular vote，所以[D]选项可排除。
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