Appenzell Innerrhoden

The Landsgemeinde, an open-air assembly that votes by show of hands Appenzell Innerrhoden is a small Swiss canton rather than a country, but its government is one of the most instructive anywhere. On the last Sunday in April, voters gather in the town square and decide laws and elect officials by raising their hands, a practice held in the open since 1403. Only Glarus, which meets a week later, keeps the same tradition among Switzerland's 26 cantons. Watching it is the nearest thing to seeing direct democracy as ancient Athens imagined it, with all the trade-offs of voting in public.