Goetheanum | Not just calculating, also feeling

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Not just calculating, also feeling

Recently, the "Corporate Responsibility Initiative" was rejected in Switzerland. Although the Swiss people voted with a narrow "Yes" for the Corporate Responsibility Initiative, its implementation ultimately failed due to the "No" of the Council of States. "Das Goetheanum" spoke about this with Ueli Hurter, board member and head of the Agriculture Section.

How do you assess the voting result?

Ueli Hurter: Although more than 50 percent of voters voted for the initiative, not half of the cantons did. This so-called majority of cantons was not achieved, but it is necessary in federalist Switzerland if one wants to achieve a constitutional amendment by popular initiative. This is a high hurdle, which from our perspective was last overcome by the moratorium on genetic engineering in agriculture in 2005. This time it was not successful. However, the result showed that the idea of holding companies liable for their worldwide activities finds a majority. The small cantons, which lie in eastern Central Switzerland, are conservative and tend to vote against such an initiative. For this reason, the disappointment is great in Western Switzerland, as well as abroad. My colleague in the Agriculture Section, Jean-Michel Florin, said that Switzerland could have positioned itself here as a small independent country as a pioneer. 24,000 international companies have their headquarters here. Conversely, political observers like Hugo Stamm say that such a result is sensationally good because the popular majority was achieved.

The small cantons together make up only 18 percent of the population and can still be decisive here.

Indeed, a vote from a small canton like Appenzell counts a hundred times more for the majority of cantons than a vote from Zurich. This may be extreme, but the principle behind it is still valuable and belongs to the political culture in Switzerland. It means that the majority does not per se have to decide, but also the vote of a minority is "not wrong." This is the spirit of federalism and also of concordance, that everyone is granted to be right – qualitatively as well, even if he or she is numerically a minority. Once this principle is recognised, it means that one calculates less and "feels" more.

This text is an excerpt from an article published in the weekly "Das Goetheanum." You can read the full article on the weekly's website.

Das Goetheanum · Issue 50 · 11 December 2020