This combination of representative institutions with the direct exercise of popular sovereignty is well calculated to promote the welfare of the people, occupying the peculiar position in which the Swiss are placed. The discipline of self-government in the Commune, and the training afforded by an effective system of popular education, have qualified them for the practice of direct democracy. With the Swiss legislature standing above the executive and judiciary, we might call Switzerland a parliamentary republic, if it were not for another power, which stands not only in the final theory, but even in the daily practice, of the constitution, above the legislature. This power is the people themselves. The Referendum shows clearly where the seat of sovereignty in Switzerland is located. CHAPTER IX. THE COMMUNES. The lowest unit in the political system is that which still exists under various names, as the Mark, the Gemeinde, the Commune, or the Parish, the analogue of the precinct or township in the United States. The communal system of Switzerland is peculiar in many respects, and presents one of the most instructive lessons which modern political life furnishes of the working of village communities. The Swiss Commune, speaking comprehensively, is a political and civil division, standing midway between a political body and a joint stock company: a corporation, in one sense, endowed with perpetuity, and holding landed and other property; also a political entity, embracing all the burghers for economical purposes,--that is, for the administration and enjoyment of the usufruct of the communal property; and embracing all the inhabitants for legislative and administrative purposes, with a great variety of local exceptions and limitations. The right of the Cantons and the several Communes to modify these features results in endless divergencies. Being an area of local self-government, and possessed, to a high degree, of freedom in self-direction, the Commune is not far from being an independent, autonomous entity, forming an _imperium in imperio_, both politically and economically. Forming the simplest division in the Confederation, still it is of vital importance; its personality to the Canton being what the Canton is to the nation. It inspires with its common life, not simply a life of political activity, but of common social and economical interests. It is so intimately bound up with all existing rights that its wishes are largely paramount in federal and cantonal action. Having so genuine and vigorous a political, social, and economical life of its own, in which the faiths, hopes, passions, and duties of the citizen are involved, the Commune may be considered a small republic with indefinite rights.