In Colombia, voters rejected a peace deal that would have brought an end to half a century

of war.

In the United Kingdom, voters opted to leave the European Union, the first country to do

so since the Union’s formation.

And in Thailand, voters gave the military greater control over the country, alienating

the democratic process.

Most passed by relatively narrow margins, and shook establishment ideals to their core.

So what are the inherent dangers in holding referendums?

Well, some believe that referendums are undemocratic, despite serving as a direct form of democracy.

In fact, referendums ultimately serve to highlight the flaws in having policy decisions made

by majority rule.

Referendums are nothing new, they’ve been used since Ancient Rome to decide issues of

policy.

Even Adolph Hitler was able to consolidate power by way of a referendum.

But today, most democratic countries operate as “representative democracies”, meaning

that instead of citizens voting directly on policy issues, as they do during referendums,

they instead vote for elected officials.

These officials are implicitly trusted to learning about the ins-and-outs of policy,

and what potential pitfalls or benefits each decision may have.

But with referendums, voters are tasked with these nuanced decisions, something many do

not have the time or inclination to fully understand.

Most voters must rely on news, social media, their friends and family, and other non-direct

or fully informed sources.

In some cases, this has led to voters being mislead, such as with a Brexit campaign in

the UK, promising to redirect 350 million pounds a week from payments to the EU, to

the country’s overburdened healthcare system.

Some voters cited this as a convincing argument to leave the EU.

But following the vote, its lead proponent backtracked on the statement, saying it was

a “mistake”, and that the money would not necessarily go to healthcare.

Another major problem is that the substance of a referendum can end up being ignored,

in favor of whichever political party supports it.

In Italy, for example, a referendum on clearing up a time-consuming bureaucracy ultimately

ended up being treated, by many, as a referendum on the popularity of the prime minister.

Because the PM promised to resign if the referendum was not passed, it gave voters an entirely

unrelated reason to vote, without even considering the question on which they were voting, skewing

the results.

Finally, and perhaps most problematically, this form of direct democracy highlights the

entire purpose of representative democracy: protecting minority rights.

Implicitly, the majority will always overrule a minority, a situation called “tyranny

of the majority”.

For example, for hundreds of year in the United States, African Americans were denied the

right to vote, meaning they were denied the right to democracy, simply because the majority

was white.

In fact, many who opposed giving African Americans this right to vote did so as to protect their

majority interests, and ultimately it took a constitutional amendment to fix this injustice.

Referendums open the door to this sort of anti-democracy ideal, and allow an almost

equal half of the voting population to exert overwhelming control on the other half.

2017 will likely see two major referendums, one on the independence of Catalonia from

Spain, the other, in Turkey, would grant the president more power.

But the reasons listed, and others, suggest referendums are inefficient methods of effecting

change in government.

On the other hand, some people support the idea of referendums as they can give the voice

of the country back to its people, rather than vesting it in political officials.

Direct democracy via referendum does work on a local level, and Switzerland, for example

has held more than 600 referendums in its political history.

But whether you think these votes help or harm a country, there is no question that

referendums are incredibly powerful tools of change.

So, what about the United States?

Can it truly be called a democracy, or is it something else entirely?

Find out in this video.

In a representative democracy, citizens vote for elected officials who collectively vote

in the place of citizens and are expected to represent their best interests.

Although that's a step above having a monarchy or oligarchy you didn't vote for, it isn't

a direct democracy.

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