Direct democracy in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden
The direct democracy in the canton of Appenzell Inner Rhodes formed in the 19th century with the expansion of people's rights at the state level ( rural municipality ) and the concretization of popular sovereignty . The political upheaval in the Appenzell Innerrhoder Landsgemeinde of 1828 was a forerunner of the Europe-wide July revolutions of 1830.
The original democratic form of the rural community and the modern democratic elements in the second Innerrhoder constitution of 1829 served as a model for the democratic movements and the further development of direct democracy in the other cantons and at the federal level. Appenzell Innerrhoden was the first canton to introduce the individual initiative (Glarus 1836, Zurich 1869). Nowhere else in the Confederation could a single voter apply for amendments to constitutional articles and laws at state level.
Fighting for sovereignty through alliance politics
Parts of the state of Appenzell have been under the control of the Prince Abbey of St. Gallen since the early Middle Ages , but certainly since the High Middle Ages . In 1345 the prince abbot was able to acquire the imperial bailiwick over Appenzell, which threatened to include the country in the emerging territorial rule of the prince abbey.
In 1401 an attempt was made to reclaim taxes that had not been used by the prince abbey ( Kuno von Stoffeln ), aroused resistance and led to defensive alliances with the city of St. Gallen and the Swiss town of Schwyz . The conflict over the rights to freedom of movement, marriage, inheritance and alienation of fiefs of the abbey as well as hunting and fishing rights escalated in the Appenzell Wars (1401–1429).
With the Peace of Constance in 1429, Appenzell had to pay some of the taxes it had fought, but it had asserted itself as an independent state against the abbey, was no longer under its manorial rule and was allowed to maintain its alliance with the confederates. In 1513, the accession of the still undivided state of Appenzell to the Swiss Confederation marked the end of an alliance policy shaped by setbacks ( St. Gallen War , etc.) lasting around a century .
Communal autonomy through cooperative self-administration
The state of Appenzell was probably administered decentrally by so-called Rhodes (offices, districts, political communities) by the abbey of St. Gallen since the time of Abbot Ulrich von Sax (1204–1220) to secure military and tax services . The Rhodsmeister (Ammann) was initially appointed by the abbot. He was later replaced by Rhod captains and councilors elected at annual Rhods assemblies, who had to represent the Rhodes in the authorities of the Old Land of Appenzell and, after the division of the land in 1597, in those of Inner Rhodes . These offices acted as the nucleus for local autonomy efforts of the peasants, who finally forced a kind of cooperative self-administration. A message from Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian to the "communities in the valleys" shows that as early as 1333 Appenzell had a cooperative organization with limited political and military independence.
Forms of self-government
The first rural community took place in Appenzell in 1403. In Appenzell Innerrhoden, the people still show their supreme power in the open air once a year, make the most important political decisions (new laws, spending decisions, etc.) and elect the government and cantonal judges: there is no ballot for things like business during the year.
The district communities ( community assemblies ) take place one week after the Landsgemeinde . In Appenzell, they always meet outdoors in normal weather. After the report and the filing of the invoices, elections (people's representative for the Grand Council and district judge) and substantive agreements on the district tasks (finances (tax sovereignty), local planning, construction, roads, land management, fire police, footpaths and hiking trails, public facilities) take place.
Each district holds the corporation congregation in the same place after the district community, where reports, invoices, elections and business transactions also take place.
Since the village of Appenzell was divided into different Rhodes ( Appenzell , Schwende and Rüte ), the fire show community was founded as a special community as early as the 16th century for cross-community tasks (such as building police, fire brigade or water and energy supply) .
On the same evening as the school community, the Catholic parish also meets, where votes are taken on the annual report, cash management, election of the church council and business matters.
Appenzell Churches
In 1071, the St. Gallen Abbey founded the Mauritius parish of Appenzell and designated the Meieramt Appenzell, an area subject to a tenancy fee , which was practically identical to the area of the later cemeteries of Appenzell. For the administrative organization of the tithe obligation (church tithe), the Mauritius parish became an economic, administrative and ecclesiastical center, which was administered by a Meier who resided in the Abbacella estate and was responsible for collecting the taxes owed. The Meierämter were replaced in the late Middle Ages with the establishment of the Rhoden. In place of the Meier, an official with judicial powers, the Ammann, was placed at the head of the Appenzell valley, with a Rodmeister at his side. The Ammann was also the head of a cooperative self-government and was able to call up the country folk to do labor (community work).
While the outer Rhodes developed into independent communities, this was not the case with the inner ones to the same extent, because the influence of the Appenzell churches was too strong. In 1537 the church tithing (oat tithing) could be replaced thanks to the large income from rice running and the annual money of the Swiss Confederation. This replacement strengthened the body of the church in Appenzell, to which all six inner Rhodes and their residents belonged. As the umbrella organization of this user association, it became the owner of the common goods (Gemeinmerker, Gemeinalpen) and now took on most of the economic, political and religious tasks. Its organs were Kirchhöreverammlungen (Kirchhöre for short), Gebotener Kirchhöre, Twofold Church Auditor and Twofold Church Auditor.
Because the redemption sum of the church tithing was paid equally by the Rhodes, they received an equal right of use for the common goods. This reawakened the awareness of the equality of all rural people living in the parish of Appenzell on all common property. The takeover of the common goods was the most important reason for a cooperative association to cope with this common task.
Although the area had been settled by Alemanni , there was never an ancient, free market cooperative here . The Appenzell Kirchhöre is an example of a "late" market cooperative, which only developed in the 16th century as a settlement area to which the undivided common property belonged, which it could dispose of in the function of a special purpose association.
Common markers
The areas of the later common markers ( common land, common property ) were freely used by the rituals for a long time due to the nature of the soil (wetlands, floodplain areas, remote forests). Only when the population increased and the land suitable for special use became scarcer did the organs of the settlement groups begin to intervene. Rhodes governors claimed the area used by their Rhods comrades as their Rhodengut. All residents of the Appenzell Church (six inner Rhodes, area of the Appenzell Meieramt, which is subject to the tithing of the Principal Abbey of St. Gallen) had the same entitlement to the use of all the public records in their area.
The use of the common markers is organized by corporations (Allmendgenossenschaften, the oldest corporation Mendle was first mentioned in writing in 1434). Those who did not have their own land were allowed to graze their cattle there, cut firewood and later build houses under building law (the land remains the property of the corporation), whereby the individual corporations apply different regulations.
The corporations (originally around 30 corporations: Mendle 1434, Ried 1546, Gemeinmerk Lehn-Mettlen 1546 etc. and several wooden corporations) meet annually at the corporation communities, usually on the Saturday after Easter. At the Ried corporation, for example, the Ried members meet for the annual Ried community at Riedgaden (originally a hay store building), receive reports and invoices, elect the five-person administration and decide on property transactions (up until the 1970s, this included maintaining the local roads).
From 1941 to 1945, the Mendle Corporation was able to drain 80 hectares of litter soil that had been swampy until then, with the help of the Swiss Association for Industry and Agriculture (SVIL). As part of the cultivation battle ( Plan Wahlen ), this served as arable land to ensure the national economic supply and, after the war, as meadow. Until 1828, the political authorities determined the rules of use, while the actual beneficiaries, the corporation members, had little to say about it.
Valley farmers and herdsmen
Appenzell alpine cooperatives have existed since at least the 16th century ( Schwägalp ). The common Alps Seealp, Gartenalp and Meglisalp were probably created in the 15th century through the usurpation of monastery property . The Alps ( Common Alps) belonging to the canton and those of the Alpine cooperatives are listed in the Alpine Register. The Alpine Law and the Alpine Ordinance passed by the Landsgemeinde aim to protect and maintain the Alpine area as a recreational area for people, animals and plants. The Alpbüchlein is the special regulation for the Common Alps.
There was a special division of labor between hay farmers and herdsmen until the 1930s. The valley farmers only had cattle for self-sufficiency and produced an excess of hay. The herdsmen bought cattle abroad and farmed the mostly privately owned Alps (in 1899 there were 167 Alps with 3,583 hectares). The butter and cheese they produced were sold by dairy traders (Grempler) in the regional urban markets. In winter the herdsmen lived with the valley farmers, with whose surplus hay they fed their cattle. At the end of the 19th century, with the establishment of Innerrhoder cattle breeding cooperatives and the agricultural association (1883), the quality of cattle breeding began to improve.
Rural community democracy during the Ancien Régime - abolition of the Secret Council
In the age of absolutism , the state of Appenzell was largely an authoritarian state, in spite of the rural community, in which the councils from the main town of Appenzell, provided by a few wealthy, advisable families, had the say with the help of the Catholic Church that they ruled.
The center of political power was the so-called Secret Council , where the heads of important families met. Although, according to the Silver Land Book of 1585, the rural community that met in the main town had the greatest "power" and included landammann, sack master, land clerk, country woman, court clerk, the governor for the Rhine Valley, the governor, governor, builder, infirmary, hospital and poor bag master and The state ensign elected (while business matters were probably only negotiated in exceptional cases) and the highest legislative and highest judicial power ( blood or high court ) after the state parish was with the large two-fold district administrator ( large council ), to which the frequent small or weekly council was added in 1603 the Secret Council, whose meetings were subject to strict confidentiality, had a far greater influence.
In addition to officials (Landammann, Säckelmeister, builder, compatriot, etc.), the Privy Council included many former Landammann and Rhodes governors who were not bound by any term of office. In 1629 the Secret Council was able to seize the authority to appoint the members of the Small Council, who had been elected in popular assemblies (Rhodsgemeinden) until then. He was also instrumental in the course of the witch trials in the 17th century.
Since the Secret Council largely determined the state finances, its members were able to secure feudal meeting allowances and considerable shares in the Spanish and French pensions for the recruitment of mercenaries.
Because of these practices and the increasingly arrogant behavior of the Secret Councils, there was almost a popular uprising in 1716. This resistance enabled the Grand Two-fold District Administrator to prevail against the Privy Council, to dissolve it and to transfer its official duties to the weekly council, which existed until the introduction of the cantonal constitution of 1872.
The Sutter trade with the judicial murder of the popular Gontener Badwirt Joseph Anton Sutter in 1784 in Appenzell Innerrhoden was the last of six conflicts that rocked the rural communities of Schwyz, Zug and the two Appenzell in the 18th century. The concern of the opposition, whose charismatic leaders were mostly punished with death, was more democracy through participation and a strengthening of the rural community. Her political treatises, which attempted to theoretically legitimize the sovereignty of the rural community, were based on sovereignty theorists such as Jean Bodin . However, they failed because of the superior resources of the oligarchs and were unable to transform the premodern rural community democracy into modern fiscal states. With pamphlets and constant agitation against the authorities, their supporters ensured that they were not forgotten and thus became a model for direct democratic movements in the 19th century. Sutter's memory was a topic both in Appenzell Ausserrhoden , the first regenerated Swiss canton, and in the St. Gallen Constitutional Council of 1830.
Resistance to the Helvetic Republic
As a result of the French Revolution , many cantons were overturned in 1798 and republican constitutions were introduced. The Innerrhoder authorities tried to forestall this development by having the country folk who had gathered at the extraordinary rural community on January 18, 1798 repeat the oath on the federal letter of 1513. After the French army marched into Vaud, the Innerrhoder Landsgemeinde released the Rhine Valley rulership from its subjects on February 25, 1798 . In view of the advance of French troops to the east, another rural community was forced to accept the constitution of the new Helvetic Republic on May 6, 1798 .
The merger of the two Appenzell and the northern part of today's canton of St. Gallen in the centralized canton of Säntis , initiated by France, led to growing popular resistance in Innerrhoden, which led to the two-time occupation of the main town of Appenzell by Swiss and French troops and the levying of war taxes. With the withdrawal of the French troops from Switzerland, the Helvetic order in Innerrhoden collapsed. The extraordinary rural community of August 30, 1802 restored the old conditions.
First independent Inner Rhodes constitution in 1814
Innerrhoden defended itself against the mediation constitution , which contained provisions on free trade and freedom of establishment, because it was feared that the elimination of internal federal tariffs and market taxes would lead to economic losses. Confessional unity was also seen as endangered because it was surrounded by the more populous, Reformed Ausserrhoden. The military (services for the French army) and economic obligations to France and the Swiss Confederation met with popular rejection. Regardless of this, the Innerrhoder military organization introduced compulsory service in 1804.
With the collapse of the Napoleonic order , the first self-determined constitution was drawn up, which was adopted by the rural community in July 1814. It was all about restoring the conditions of the ancien régime and cantonal autonomy. The Roman Catholic faith was determined to be the exclusive denomination of Inner Rhodes. Freedom of establishment and territorial reform were renounced and the traditional Rhoden and gender structure was retained. Appenzell Innerrhoden was one of the last cantons to approve the federal treaty of 1815 due to reservations (troop provision for the federal army, participation in the expenditure of the confederation, protection of religion and sovereignty).
Transition to Modern Democracy - Second Constitution 1828
In the 1820s, resentment grew in the Inner Rhodes population against the oligarchy of the ruling families and the authoritarian state. The opposition called for democratic reforms, expansion of popular rights and the printing of the cantonal constitution of 1814.
The unauthorized administration of the Innerrhoder Allmenden (Gemeinmerker) by the political authorities, while the Mendle comrades had little to say, as well as massive pressure attempts by the authorities to prevent the Mendle from cooperative self-administration, provided the reason for the protest to grow into a broad popular movement. As a concession, the Grand Council was forced to establish a first democratic Mendle community in 1826 as an assembly of all beneficiaries.
The Assembly had the competence itself spell waiting to vote, to determine the Auftriebstag for the cattle and set the lift taxes, but twice had to be repeated because of unrest. When the majority of the assembly rejected the authorities' request to allow the Mendleweid to continue to be used by the poor welfare office, the leading state official, the Pannerherr, refused to recognize the negative majority. Therefore, the meeting ended with a great uproar.
In 1827 the councilors were threatened by 200 to 300 people when they left the town hall in Appenzell after a meeting. A few days later the two Mendlebannwarte Rechsteiner and Herrsche were condemned as ringleaders, which the population no longer wanted to be offered.
At the Landsgemeinde in 1828, a large number of the state officials from the ruling families were voted out of office and the two Mendlebannwarte Herrsche and Rechsteiner were elected as poor man and land clerk. This democratic overthrow gave the impetus for the second Innerrhoder constitution of 1829, with which, among other things, the right of individual initiative was introduced. The fact that a single person entitled to vote could request the amendment of constitutional articles and laws had a high symbolic power for modern democracy and led to the gradual replacement of the old authoritarian state. With such individual initiatives, the separation of powers and a financial referendum were later introduced.
The Sutter trade , one of the most serious domestic political crises in Innerrhoden's history, also testifies to the onset of social change in the Age of Enlightenment . The rehabilitation of the opposition Landammann Anton Joseph Sutter (1720–1784), who was wrongly sentenced to death in 1784, was a matter that had been fermenting among the people for decades.
Distrust of the new state
Appenzell Innerrhoden shared the reservations of other Catholic places about the idea of a federal state because they did not trust centralized state ideas and individualistic ideas of freedom. In 1847 it supported the Sonderbund cantons , but remained militarily neutral. Because the Innerrhoder did not obey the troop contingent of the daily statute, they were sentenced to a fine by the Confederation. As a result, Appenzell Innerrhoden clearly rejected the Federal Constitution of 1848, as did the central Swiss cantons.
The Innerrhod Constitution was only adapted to the Federal Constitution in 1872. The need to adapt the canton's life of its own to the new federal state led to heated political disputes.
Cantonal constitution of 1872 as a conservative-liberal compromise
As in other rural parish cantons, political parties played a minor role throughout the 19th century. After the founding of the federal state, a liberal movement arose from the majority of well-to-do educated citizens from the capital, which helped shape canton politics for a long time and sought to renew the canton in the sense of a secular constitutional state. This included Karl Justin Sonderegger (1842–1906), who was editor of the liberally oriented Innerrhoder newspaper Der Freie Appenzeller from 1879 to 1895 , and who in 1864 founded a liberally oriented citizens' association . In 1864 he applied to the Landsgemeinde for a constitutional revision, without success. With an educational pamphlet in which he proposed the formation of territorially limited political communities, the separation of church and state, the incompatibility of the accumulation of offices, the separation of powers and an improvement in the school system, he was able to shake up the public. The constitutional council set up by the Grand Council against the will of conservative circles drew up a draft which was rejected by a large majority in the tumultuous rural community of 1869.
301 Oberegger citizens petitioned the Grand Council to resume revision work. A second, conservative draft constitution was also rejected by the Landsgemeinde in 1871. The Landsgemeinde of 1872 now set up a constitutional council made up of three liberals and four conservatives, whose draft compromise was adopted in the extraordinary Landsgemeinde on November 24, 1872. The constitution, which has only 48 articles, meets the people's demand for publicity and transparency. The revised constitution that came into force on the Landsgemeinde Sunday 1873 is still valid today.
literature
- Fabian Brändle: Democracy and Charisma: Five Landsgemeinde conflicts in the 18th century. Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0748-5 .
- Fabian Brändle: To please the common people in everything. Joseph Anton Sutter and the Landsgemeinde conflicts of the 18th century. In: IGfr. 50, 2009, pp. 41-63.
- Daniel Fässler : To comfort the poor, useful and good. A legal historical representation of the common markers (common land) of Appenzell Innerrhoden - with special consideration of the Mendle (= Innerrhoder writings. Volume 6). Appenzell 1998.
- Rolf Graber (Ed.): Democratization processes in Switzerland in the late 18th and 19th centuries . Research colloquium as part of the research project “The democratic movement in Switzerland from 1770 to 1870”. A selection of sources with commentary (= series of publications by the International Research Center “Democratic Movements in Central Europe 1770–1850”. Vol. 40). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Bern / Bruxelles / New York / Oxford / Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-631-56525-4 .
- René Roca, Andreas Auer (ed.): Paths to direct democracy in the Swiss cantons . Writings on Democracy Research, Volume 3. Center for Democracy Aarau and Verlag Schulthess, Zurich / Basel / Geneva 2011, ISBN 978-3-7255-6463-7 .
- Walter Schläpfer: Appenzell history: On the 450th anniversary of the Appenzell Association 1513–1963. Urnäsch 1972, Vol. 2, pp. 160-182.
- Max Triet: The Sutter trade in Appenzell Innerrhoden 1760–1829 . Cooperative book printing company, Appenzell 1977.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Another word for parish (cf. GenWiki ), but in Appenzell it means “the assembly of the community members with full rights”, according to Kirchhöre . In: Former Academy of Sciences of the GDR, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): German legal dictionary . tape 7 , issue 7 (edited by Günther Dickel , Heino Speer, with the assistance of Renate Ahlheim, Richard Schröder, Christina Kimmel, Hans Blesken). Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1980, OCLC 718486466 , Sp. 970-972 ( adw.uni-heidelberg.de ).
- ↑ a b Daniel Fässler: To the poor for consolation, use and good. A legal historical representation of the common markers (common land) of Appenzell Innerrhoden - with special consideration of the Mendle , Innerrhoder Schriften, Volume 6, Appenzell 1998.
- ^ District of Appenzell: The political structures of Appenzell Innerrhoden
- ↑ Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden: 1716 - Abolition of the Privy Council ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Fabian Brändle: Also to please the common people in everything. Joseph Anton Sutter and the Landsgemeinde conflicts of the 18th century , in IGfr. 50, 2009.
- ↑ Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden: 1828 - The political upheaval in Appenzell ( Memento of the original of December 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
