Question of the week: when a majority won’t vote for essential change how can democracy deliver it?

In Switzerland, like many countries around the world, a static retirement age combined with rising life expectancy and a rapidly aging population is creating cracks in the nation’s pay-as-you-go pension system. Eventually, a shrinking working population will buckle under the strain of funding the pensions of a growing number retirees.

© Weerapat Wattanapichayakul _ Dreamstime.com

In a survey following Switzerland’s failed 2017 referendum on pension reform, 62% were resigned to the need for the retirement age to rise, but only 31% said they would vote for it.

For more stories like this on Switzerland follow us on Facebook and Twitter.