itical institutions is the
referendum. The origins of the referendum in Switzerland may be traced
to a period at least as early as the sixteenth century. The principle
was applied first of all in the complicated governments of two
territories--the Grisons and the Valais--which have since become
cantons but which at the time mentioned were districts merely
affiliated with the Confederation. In the later sixteenth century
there were traces of the same principle in Bern and in Zuerich. And, in
truth, the political arrangements of the early Confederation involved
the employment of a device which at least closely resembled the
referendum. Delegates sent by the cantons to the Diet were
commissioned only _ad audiendum et referendum_; that is to say, they
were authorized, not to agree finally to proposals, but simply to hear
them and to refer them to the cantonal governments for ultimate
decision.

In its present form, however, the Swiss referendum originated in the
canton of St. Gall in 1830. It is distinctively a nineteenth century
creation and is to be regarded as a product of the political
philosophy of Rousseau, the fundamental tenet of which was that (p. 420)
laws ought to be enacted, not through representatives, but by the
people directly.[610] The principle of the referendum may be applied
in two essentially distinct directions, i.e., to constitutions and
constitutional amendments and to ordinary laws. The referendum as
applied to constitutional instruments exists to-day in every one of
the Swiss cantons.[611] It is in no sense, however, peculiar to
Switzerland. The same principle obtains in several English-speaking
countries, as well as upon occasion elsewhere. The referendum as
applied to ordinary laws, on the other hand, is distinctively Swiss.
In our own day it is being brought into use in certain of the American
commonwealths and elsewhere, but it is Swiss in origin and spirit.
Inaugurated in part to supply the need created by a defective system
of representation and in part in deference to advanced democratic
theory, the referendum for ordinary laws exists to-day in every canton
of Switzerland save only that of Freiburg. In some cantons the
referendum is obligatory, in others it is "facultative," or optional.
Where the referendum is obligatory every legislative measure must be
referred to popular vote; where it is optional, a measure is referred
only upon demand of a specified number or proportion of voters. A