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Why is there not a referendum process in national US politics? It seems the only way to prevent government officials from passing this kind of legislation is through public outcry on the internet (and mass media, if they listen). People should be allowed to reject this kind of thing through a real process. Special interest has a bigger voice than the people most of the time. Referendums work in Switzerland (usually, let's not talk about minarets).

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Referendum processes are no panacea --- look at the mess they've created in California. Among other problems, there are referenda that limit tax increases, which have obvious appeal, and referenda mandating spending on various good causes, which also have obvious appeal. The problem is that at this point, so much state revenue is committed to mandates that in crunch times, everything else gets slashed to the bone, whether it makes sense to do that or not.

See http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/who-kille... for more, particularly the parts on propositions 13 (limiting tax increases) and 98 and 111 (mandating spending)...

Such referendums wouldn't necessarily work in the way you think they would. All the American stuff that probably seems crazy to a Swiss person (like stiff prison sentences for minor crimes) is actually desired by a large percentage of the population. It could be much worse than the minaret ban, especially on issues that can be colored by religious beliefs.

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