The reciprocal institutional influences of the "sister republics"

While Switzerland borrowed its federalist system from the USA, the growth of direct democracy across the Atlantic was stimulated by the Swiss model. This is the story of the common destiny of these two countries, which was not only played out in their capitals.

The spiritual closeness between the USA and Switzerland makes a mockery of the Atlantic. Between the sons of the Puritans who founded the first American colonies, taking the vast spaces they were about to conquer as a new promised land, and the Helvetians, proud of their Landsgemeinden, a feeling of shared destiny soon arose. Admittedly, when we look at the history of these two countries, we see that their approaches to democracy diverge on important points. Nevertheless, their membership of the republican camp in the midst of a monarchical world, despite the republican upheavals that r