The problem is scale. You can do all of it on paper or in person, but that scales awfully badly. On a country level a referendum takes years to set up and organize. That is a huge problem for Switzerland as changing anything can take ages. Womens suffrage took Switzerland until 1971 on a federal level and 1990 on a canton level. Just as an example. That is for what really is a small country. Just think about something the size and compelxity of India for example. Switzerland only has four languages, India has hundrets and happens to be much bigger.
The problem is scale. You can do all of it on paper or in person, but that scales awfully badly. On a country level a referendum takes years to set up and organize. That is a huge problem for Switzerland as changing anything can take ages. Womens suffrage took Switzerland until 1971 on a federal level and 1990 on a canton level. Just as an example. That is for what really is a small country. Just think about something the size and compelxity of India for example. Switzerland only has four languages, India has hundrets and happens to be much bigger.