[jules]

Democracy is a system of government, populism is a strategy for maximizing popularity by appealing to emotions with rhetoric and unrealistic proposals, and pitting a group of people against another group. Since I can see where you are going with this, yes, the notion of populism does require the politically incorrect idea that not everyone is perfectly rational, intelligent and well informed. One can be in favour of democracy without necessarily agreeing with the voting decisions of general public, and without agreeing with political strategies that exploit this.

(just like one can be in favour of the freedom of speech to say X without agreeing with X)