, or Greater
Council. In the larger assemblies there is no privilege of debate.
Measures are simply adopted or rejected. In the smaller gatherings,
however, it is still possible to preserve some restricted privilege of
discussion. Unless a secret ballot is specifically demanded, voting is
by show of hands. Theoretically, any citizen possesses the right to
initiate propositions. In practice, however, virtually all measures
emanate from the Greater Council, and if the private citizen wishes to
bring forward a proposal he will be expected to do so by suggesting it
to the Council rather than by introducing it personally in the
assembly. The competence of the Landesgemeinde varies somewhat from
canton to canton, but in all cases it is very comprehensive. The
assembly authorizes the revision of the constitution, enacts all laws,
levies direct taxes, grants public privileges, establishes offices,
and elects all executive and judicial officials of the canton.
Directly or indirectly, it discharges, indeed, all of the fundamental
functions of government. It is the sovereign organ of a democracy as
thoroughgoing as any the world has ever known.[608]

[Footnote 608: H. D. Lloyd, A Sovereign People (New
York, 1907), Chap. 4.]

*461. The Greater Council.*--In every canton, whether or not of the
Landesgemeinde type, there is a popularly elected representative body,
the Greater Council, which performs a larger or smaller service in the
process of legislation. This body is variously known as the Grosser
Rath, the Landrath, and the Kantonsrath. In the cantons that maintain
the Landesgemeinde the functions of the Greater Council are
subsidiary. It chooses minor officials, audits accounts, and passes
unimportant ordinances; but its principal business is the preparation
of measures for the consideration of the Landesgemeinde. In the
cantons, however, in which the Landesgemeinde does not exist, the
Greater Council is a more important institution, for there it
comprises the only law-making body which is ever brought together at
one time or place. Where there exists the obligatory referendum, i.e.,
where all legislative measures are submitted to a direct popular
vote, the decisions of the Council are but provisional. But where the
referendum is optional the Council acquires in many matters the
substance of final authority.

Members of the Council are elected regularly in districts by direct
popular vot