[webmobdev]

"Direct" democracy or rule by public referendum goes against democracy, as it invariably results in a majoritarian democracy. While it may partly work in a small geography with a largely homogenous culture (like Switzerland) , it cannot work in India or US (and to a certain extent UK), that have multi-cultural society. In a multi-cultural society, one of the major tenets of democracy is that it guarantees the minorities certain rights that the majority swear to protect. There are many democratic decisions taken by good democrats that have proven unpopular in their times, but later hailed as visionary. A majoritarian democracy prevents this, and invariably turns democracy into rule by the mobs.

[sofixa]

> While it may partly work in a small geography with a largely homogenous culture (like Switzerland)

Homogeneous as in 4 different language and cultural groups? Are you sure we're talking about the same Switzerland? Not to mention tons of migrants from all over Europe and the wider world?

The real problem with direct democracy is that most people are shortsighted. Governments often need to make long term decisions, like infrastructure, combat climate change, etc. and those are simply too big to be fully appreciated and grasped by your common voter - point in case, new "green" laws to reduce CO2 emissions were recently refused by referendum in Switzerland - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57457384