Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Switzerland's Unique Relationship with the EU Explained: How Does the Swiss Deal Work? - TLDR News" video.

@hmthisisit True and not just education but even the media and governments giving the voting public all the facts on what they are voting on, that's needed for direct democracy to work effectively, otherwise we get the kind of mess we are seeing in the US with Trump and the UK with Brexit where everything is twisted up from the media to the government and that makes direct democracy a bad idea, so it's good with a well informed public but it's bad with a public that vote going what they want and not what is.
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@TheRealHelvetica They are but with the lack of reforms in the country and with the current government in power, it's unlikely that Turkey will join the EU any time soon and in all honesty, Turkey seems to be moving in the opposite direction on that. I can't see any of that getting back on track until a new government is in power in Turkey.
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I'm with you on that one, the EU-Turkey relation would be intresting to see.
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@midas1929 I agree that direct democracy would be the best form of democracy but you need a better educated and well-informed population that takes note of what is going on in politics and I also feel that voting should be mandatory for everyone of voting age as politics impacts us all. Anyway, if it works over there, great and over the longer run, I do suspect more European countries will go that way but many things will need to change before that can happen, the media will need to be clean up a lot, politics would need to be cleaned up, the voting public will have to be better informed on what they are voting on. Some European countries could do that already but countries that are a along way from that is the UK and US, giving the people more direct say with all the information they are being fed would likely end badly as we've seen on Brexit and as we are seeing in the US with Trump.
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@midas1929 The real question is, which is the best form of democracy? I say that because direct democracy with the people is only really effective if the voting public has all the facts on what they are voting on and are clear-headed, that isn't really the case in a lot of countries, just look at the US and UK, if they went more direct, it would be a disaster. I think representative democracy is a better fit because we elect governments to do our bidding, it's up to them to know all the technical stuff on what's right for the countries as it's quite difficult to get the public onboard with everything that is going on and that makes them easy to manipulate by governments and the media. So direct democracy would be better but only if voting is mandatory and everyone of voting age takes part in debates on what's going on in politics so they can make an informed decision, the sad truth is, a lot of people don't have a clue what they are voting on and are led by what governments or the media tells them.
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@ireminmon In your view it is but in reality it's not, besides, why do you think it's a shit show? Also, why do people that don't like the EU keep thinking it's going to collapses? Many have been predicting that for decades only to get it wrong, maybe wishing for something to happen and it's actually happening are two very different things. The EU will eventually collapse someday just like everything does but it doesn't look like it will be any time soon so enjoy the ride.
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I can understand why the EU would want to clean up it's deal it's got with Switzerland as it's a mess and looks like better terms than others are getting, I can understand why Switzerland isn't happy about those changes. I think in the long run as the EU keeps expending and integrating, it's going to be harder for Switzerland to stay out because of its geographic position. On another side, the more I look at countries like Switzerland and Norway, the more it's looking like it would make more sense for them to join the EU because they are having to abide most of its rules without any say in creating them, at least inside the EU they would have a say and a veto.
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@fixyfoxy2661 That's the case in any country if enough people stand contest a new law. I do prefer the idea of direct democracy but voting should be mandatory and everyone of voting age should take part and have all the facts on what they are voting on, we are not even close to that yet, not even in Switzerland.
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@nietname2468 It depends which kind of democracy we are talking about, they are not all equal and some are quite different in how the system works. Real democracy would be direct to the people but that would mean the people debating and knowing all the facts on everything they vote on, not an easy task to pull out, repensentive democracy is what most use and that would work well if governments actually represent the interest of the people, they rarely do unless pushed. By the way, which do any of you lot think is the overall best system or if there is a new system that could work better?
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@stefanleithner6922 That's not quite true, it could work in any country but changes would need to be made, besides, the only reason countries like Switzerland don't try to dominant is because they are not in a position of power, history has shown us time and time again that any country that is in that position tends to abuse it.
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@midas1929 I think with how important politics is to people live, I think a lot more discussion among the people should be happened, it still surprise me that they don't have these debates at school in the last 2 years to get them ready for real life.
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@stefanleithner6922 There is no such thing as neutral, Switzerland by its nature of being so tied into the European economy isn't neutral because of its dependency of trade and ties it has with the EU in so many areas but the country does want to be seen as neutral but that is very difficult to do in today's world. Also, have you ever wonder why countries without power tend to do better for its people? less power games and money being wasted on world politics games, basically, smaller countries put a lot more focus and resources internally on the people because they have very little power on the world stage which is ironic, because bigger countries should be able to do much better than small countries on a per capita basis thanks to economy of scale but clearly that doesn't happen because of all the games and power play that bigger countries do.
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@stefanleithner6922 That's true but I don't see any country as being truly neutral any more, the global system makes that almost impossible to do, I'll give you an idea, do you think Switzerland is neutral with western countries compared to eastern countries? I think we both know the answer to that one in being western. Also, Switzerland doesn't have to obey EU rules, they do so because it offers them better trade terms than what any standard free trade deal offers, something the UK is finding out the hard way. In any case, I think the more the EU forms, the more democratic the system will get and mostly because the EU members themselves will push that, so the system will have to be very fair for all for it to work or the system would fall apart. It's not a mind-blowing observation but it's remarkable how many countries don't see that lol, especially the bigger countries, as it stands in today's world, the lucky ones are western European countries that are in small countries, they are getting the better deal in this world. Anyway, I would prefer direct democracy and would prefer if elections happen every 2 years to keep them on their toes because what we tend to see now is that they promise the earth when it's election time and after that, they don't listen to the people any more and that is the case in a lot of so called democracies.
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@ireminmon If you say so but reality says otherwise, now if you said the US is a shit show, you might be onto something lol.
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@ireminmon The US is I agree but not the EU, in fact the EU is actually doing pretty well considering everything that is going on and as for Switzerland keeping it's distance, that's impossible considering it's location, out of the 3 big countries not in the EU, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, I think Switzerland is the one that will find it's the hardest to stay out because of geographic and the other two are likely only out because of oil and fishing, two things that won't benefit them over the long term.
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@henafoo That's true and that happens in almost anything which is probably a good reason why we don't live forever or change would be difficult to make as it's mostly the new gen of people that are more willing to change than the old guard.
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@lorenzogleam8882 It could do but a think a big shift in the political system, the media and interest from the public would be needed for direct democracy to work, as it is, direct democracy would likely be a bad idea in many countries because of how people vote quite recklessly. Also, in most countries, direct democracy doesn't suite the ones in power that try to take powers away not give them to the people, so I don't expect much change on that unless we have some kind of revolution. The truth is, for now the better system seems to be repensentive democracy because most people either don't know what they are voting on or don't care to know and some can't even be bothered to vote, in that kind of system, it's better to elect people to do all the hard work the people don't want to do, the problem is that governments rarely care what the people want unless it's election time.
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@lorenzogleam8882 I agree and that's how most democracies should be done, more power to local regions where it makes sense as they can respensent the peoples interest then a big government can but some powers make sense at a more central government level, it's the balancing act of getting that right which is tricky and that is the process the EU and it's members are going through.
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@Ms-zr1dn It's hard to say which way the EU is going because it's really up to the members that decide which path the EU goes, I would suspect they want more democracy in the system, probably more than any other democratic system there i, getting there is the tricky and slow part, for now, it's a bit of a hybrid system because it needs to be until we have pan-European elections. I do like the idea that the EU and it's member are taking it slow to build this system, it's less likely to repeat many of the mistakes others have done in history by trying to create a system and rushing the system through. We can already see that the system of the US fails so that's not one to copy, a new system is needed and that's up to us Europeans to figure out.
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@Max-md6jv As long as that issue isn't resolved among others, talks of EU membership for Turkey are likely going to be on hold and I suspect that will be the case until the current leader is in power.
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@SwissSareth 1 seat? Even the smallest EU member Malta has 6 seats and they are a lot smaller than Switzerland, the country would have around 19 seats and in fact per population numbers, you would actually be getting more than the population warrants because smaller members tend to get more seats per capita than bigger members, if everything was equal, the bigger members would have more seats than they do. Also, Switzerland would have a veto like every other EU member, a powerful tool in bargaining if not abused as that will get other EU members to turn on the country in question. The truth is, you would have more of a say in then you do out because Switzerland is more or less abiding by the vast bulk of EU laws and regulations with little to no say in them, that's a nice deal for the EU but not a great one for Switzerland.
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