Elite Opinion vs. The Wisdom of Crowds

Wanting the referendum to be overturned doesn't mean that one is undemocratic. My reasons for wanting the referendum overturned are the same reasons I don't want referendums in the first place. Namely I believe that referendums work directly against the way our democracies work. Currently we have a system where parties vi for our vote. If a party then does things that we don't agree with (e.g. promise tons of things and then renege on them) then at the next election they can be voted out. The key point here is that decision makers can be held accountable and decisions can be changed. In a referendum there is no going back or accountability. This provides the incentive to lie as much as possible to get your way. This was very evident in the referendum campaign where the out campaign variously lied about more money than is possible on the NHS, increasing immigration from Commonwealth countries and how much of our laws originated from the EU. So if the decision to leave for 2% of voters was based on these issues then the result of the referendum is based on a lie. Is that democratic?

Why single out the liberal elite? The conservative elite are also perfectly willing to ignore the majority opinion. For instance, look at drug legalization. The US has almost 90% in favor of legalizing marijuana with a prescription and a majority in favor of legalizing it without a prescription, yet neither has been done.

There isn&#x27;t a lot of wisdom in a mob, which is why most democratic organizations are representative systems where there is varying degrees of insulation from the passions of today.<p>It&#x27;s pretty plain to see the effect. In the US House of Representatives, 2 year terms mean more stronger pandering from representatives and more radical legislation that goes nowhere.<p>In the Presidency with 4 year terms and the Senate with 6 year terms, you tend to get a more stable and moderating outlook. (With notable exceptions, such as the horror show of the &quot;solid South&quot;)<p>Some US states have referendum. I don&#x27;t live in one so I&#x27;m not aware of the nuances of less well known propositions, but what I do see seems to signal that referendum isn&#x27;t a mechanism that is bringing more enlightened governance.

&gt; The anti-democratic attitude of the liberal elite is absurd from a theoretical viewpoint because a democratic judgment represents the will of the majority and so whatever the majority decide is the correct answer, no ifs, no buts.<p>No, a democratic judgment represents the judgment of the majority. It is <i>not</i> &quot;the correct answer&quot; in any sense. It is merely &quot;the way we have agreed to decide things&quot;.