Do you have a source for this? According to Wikipedia,
> An earlier referendum on women's suffrage was held on 1 February 1959 and was rejected by the majority (67%) of Switzerland's men.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_Switzerl...
That's rather confusing. If women didn't have the right to vote, how would they be able to vote on the question of whether or not to grant women the right to vote?
Also, since when is a political ruling class known for long-term thinking?
Besides, cars are already taxed based on weight/power (what you considered common sense).
Maybe consider that Switzerland is one of the best if not the best country in the world because people can choose what they want it to be.
Not politicians, experts and administrators.
And yes, most people are limited in knowledge and vision. Look no further than Brexit, where the average UK citizen couldn't comprehend the complexity of the situation or the question, yet voted. The most asked question on Google the day after the vote was what is the EU... And it took years to begin to untangle the mess.
And again, look at Switzerland and their human rights travesty of not allowing half their population to vote because the existing voters said no.
A direct democracy could decide tomorrow that we wanted to fuck China sideways with nukes because it's funny and based all because a tiktok went viral.
