olitical principles and organs most commonly prevailing within
the individual cantons; from which it follows that an understanding of
the mechanism of the federation is conditioned upon an acquaintance
with that of the canton.[606] Anything, however, in the nature of a
description which will apply to the governmental systems of all of the
twenty-five cantons and half-cantons is impossible. Variation among
them, in both structure and procedure, is at least as common and as
wide as among the governments of the American commonwealths. Each
canton has its own constitution, and the Confederation is bound to
guarantee the maintenance of this instrument regardless of the
provisions which it may contain, provided only, as has been pointed
out, that there is in it nothing that is contrary to the federal (p. 417)
constitution, that it establishes a republican system of government,
and that it has been ratified by the people and may be amended upon
demand of a majority. The constitutions of the cantons are amended
easily and frequently; but while it may be affirmed that, in
consequence of their flexibility, they tend toward more rather than
toward less uniformity, the diversity that survives among them still
proclaims strikingly their separatist origin and character.

[Footnote 606: On the governments of the cantons
the principal general works are J. Schollenberger,
Grundriss der Staats-und Verwaltungsrechts der
schweizerischen Kantone, 3 vols. (Zuerich,
1898-1900), and J. Dubs, Das oeffentliche Recht der
schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (Zuerich,
1877-1878), I. Brief accounts will be found in
Vincent, the Government of Switzerland, Chaps.
1-12.]

The point at which the governments of the cantons differ most widely
is in respect to arrangements for the exercise of the functions of
legislation. Taking the nature of the legislative process as a basis
of division, there may be said to be two classes of cantonal
governments. One comprises those in which the ultimate public powers
are vested in a Landesgemeinde, or primary assembly of citizens; the
other, those in which such powers have been committed to a body of
elected representatives. The second class, as will appear, falls again
into two groups, i.e., those in which the employment of the
referendum is obliga