EU referendum, brexit and the aftermath

You are reading a single comment by @hugo7 and its replies. Click here to read the full conversation.

•

NotThamesWater in reply to @hugo7

Although I do think that a referendum is one of the few fundamentally democratic process around / possible with large populations.

I'm not sure that I agree. It is a democratic process, no doubt, but no more so than PR, FPTP, or any other democratic process and / or system.

My point is that democracy can be defined so as to fit your own argument, and held to be an end in itself, rendering that argument somewhat unsubstantive.

•

hugo7 in reply to @NotThamesWater

I see your point.

I guess my response would be that yes democracy is a loose term capable of multiple definitions. However, imo the core immovable constituent is the representation of the opinions of the people with the Ancient Greek model of direct representation being the purest.

My original thinking was that with large populations a referendum is the closest to direct representation you can get.

•

mespilus in reply to @hugo7

But it is the responsibility of those setting the referendum to ensure it is an informed debate, free from bias. Given we know this is impossible, truly democratic states, forced into referenda, apply threshholds to prevent apathy being the ally of the single vote victory.

About

Avatar for hugo7 @hugo7 started