For our maiden voyage, we're diving headfirst into a whopper: How Switzerland actually functions, and how its direct democracy delivers rather splendid outcomes—most of the time, at least. Certainly streets ahead of any other European nation fumbling about with their governance.

Switzerland's deliciously peculiar system of devolved power, distributed governance, and that utterly bonkers arrangement of direct democracy—where practically any determined soul can gather 100,000 signatures and force a referendum that's legally binding on the government—is nothing short of revolutionary. It's essentially a masterclass in handing power directly to the people on a silver platter, making government answer to its citizens rather than the other way round, creating feedback loops so effective they'd make a sound engineer weep. 

Most brilliantly, it prevents political parties from amassing power like greedy children hoarding sweets at a birthday party.

Consider this your beginner's guide to the institutions that make Switzerland such a delightfully functional and safe place to plant one's flag—a place where things simply 'work'.