What Bern Can Teach Washington

Are we a democracy? Or a constitutional republic?

I’ve watched smart people argue this for years. One former State Supreme Court justice I know has a better answer: we’re a constitutional democratic republic. That covers it nicely.

But here’s what almost everyone agrees on, whatever label they use: government should be “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” The “consent of the governed” isn’t a slogan. It’s the whole point.

We intuitively feel this. We believe our vote matters. We believe we have a right to be heard. It’s our government. It should answer to us.

So why doesn’t it feel that way anymore?

In April I met a government leader from Bern, Switzerland. He told me something I didn’t know: in 1848, Switzerland drew on the U.S. Constitution to build their own federal system, then took it in their own direction.

The result is a system that’s almost unrecognizable to American eyes.

• No single president. Switzerland is run by a Federal Council of seven people, elected together, who lead as equals. No one person holds the power.

• Rotating leadership. The presidency rotates every year among the seven. This year’s president is next year’s colleague again. No cult of personality, no four-year campaign cycle where the whole country holds its breath.

• Constant referenda. Some cantons vote on 12 to 20 local questions a year, on top of national votes. Citizens don’t just elect people to decide things for them. They decide a lot of things themselves.

• Radical independence. Switzerland isn’t in the EU. It stays neutral. It doesn’t get pulled into alliances its citizens never voted for.

I want to be careful here. Different isn’t automatically better. Switzerland is a small, wealthy, famously stable country, and what works for eight million people in the Alps doesn’t necessarily scale to 330 million people across a continent. I’m not arguing we should trade constitutions.

What I am saying is this: we already have a great charter. The problem isn’t that our Constitution was wrong. It’s that we’ve drifted from it.

For most of the last century, the document that was supposed to strictly limit and enumerate the powers of the federal government has been treated more like a suggestion. Washington has grown far beyond what the framers sketched out, and we’ve felt it: in the size of our tax bills, in the reach of federal regulation into small businesses and family farms, in how much of daily life now requires a permit, a filing, or a compliance department. Personal freedom and economic prosperity aren’t abstractions. They erode a little every time government expands past its original design.

That’s the real lesson from Switzerland, and it’s not really about Switzerland at all. It’s a mirror. Their system, whatever its merits, still runs on constant citizen involvement. Ours was built the same way. We just stopped showing up for it.

Americans don’t trust their government. That’s not a hot take, it’s been true for decades, across every poll, through every administration.

Why would we? When was the last time you felt like your elected officials actually heard you? Not at a town hall photo op. Not in a form-letter reply. Actually heard you.

Alexis de Tocqueville saw the source of American self-government almost 200 years ago, and he saw it clearly. Writing about New England town meetings, he put it this way:

“Local assemblies of citizens constitute the strength of free nations. Town-meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people’s reach, they teach men how to use and how to enjoy it. A nation may establish a system of free government, but without the spirit of municipal institutions it cannot have the spirit of liberty.”

Tocqueville was describing us: ordinary citizens, practicing the art of self-government in their own small sphere, before that muscle ever atrophied.

We built a great republic 250 years ago, on exactly the spirit Tocqueville admired. But somewhere along the way, too many of us became spectators in it, and too much power drifted to Washington and away from the town meeting.

This is exactly the gap Citizen Portal exists to close.

Every year, Citizen Portal surfaces millions of news articles to help people actually understand what’s happening in their local, state, and federal government. It helps you follow the officials who represent you and the issues you care about, in plain language, without the noise.

But information alone isn’t participation. Knowing what your representative did last week doesn’t mean they know what you think about it.

That’s the next piece we’re building: giving Citizen Portal users a direct channel to communicate their opinions, ideas, and insights straight to their elected officials. More on that very soon.

The goal is simple: strong communication between citizens and their government leads to better policy. Better policy leads to more trust. More trust, and less unchecked government reach, is exactly what this country needs to get back to first principles.

I keep coming back to something I want to ask my Swiss friends directly: what does it feel like to have that much say in your own government? To vote 15 or 20 times a year on things that actually matter, and know your voice moves the outcome?

If you’re a Swiss citizen reading this, I’d genuinely love to hear from you. Tell me how it feels to live inside a system built for your voice, not just your vote.

Because I think tens of millions of Americans are ready to remember what that feels like, too, in a country built for exactly that purpose.

Paul Allen is the co-founder of Ancestry.com and CEO of Soar, an AI Studio building agent fleets that uplift individuals, organizations, and communities. Create a personalized AI fleet for your company today.