In no canton in Switzerland is there more than one legislative body: in
none is there a senate. The cities of Switzerland have no mayor, the
cantons have no governor, and, if the title be used in the American
sense, the republic has no President. Instead of the usual single
executive head, the Swiss employ an executive council. Hence, in every
canton a deadlock in legislation is impossible, the way is open for all
law demanded by a majority, and neither in canton nor Confederation is
one-man power known.

The cantonal legislature is the Grand Council. "In the Landsgemeinde
cantons and those having the obligatory Referendum, it is little more
than a supervisory committee, preparing measures for the vote of the
citizens and acting as a check on the cantonal executive council. In the
remaining cantons (those having the optional Referendum), the
legislature has the power to spend money below a specified limit; to
enact laws of specified kinds, usually not of general application; and
to elect the more important officials, the amount of discretion [in the
different cantons] rising gradually till the complete representative
government is reached"[G] in Freiburg, which resembles one of our
states. Though in several cantons the Grand Council meets every two
months for a few days' session, in most of the cantons it meets twice a
year. The pay of members ranges from sixty cents to $1.20 per day. The
legislative bodies are large; the ratio in five cantons is one
legislator to every 1,000 inhabitants; in twelve it ranges from one to
187 up to one to 800, and in the remaining five from one to 1,000 to one
to 2,000. The Landsgemeinde cantons usually have fifty to sixty members;
Geneva, with 20,000 voters, has a hundred.

[Footnote G: Vincent.]