Comment by im3w1l
Comment by im3w1l a day ago
Requiring 50% in a referendum is different from and safer than requiring 50% in a parliament vote. A parliament can go against the people that elected them.
Comment by im3w1l a day ago
Requiring 50% in a referendum is different from and safer than requiring 50% in a parliament vote. A parliament can go against the people that elected them.
If you can convince 51% of the population to do something wrong than you're already screwed and have much bigger issues to worry about.
Countries that don't regularly have popular votes face the challenge that any vote is considered as a vote of confidence in their current government. It basically only reflects the popularity of the government and people do not evaluate the face value, the core of the issue. Having a real democracy takes a lot of training and effort.
Brexit was 52% of voters voting to leave, but that was only 37% of the electorate. [1] It wasn't >50% of the electorate, let alone >50% of the population.
[1] https://fullfact.org/online/brexit-referendum-electorate-lea...
It's an additional check. That's good, but it isn't always sufficient, because sometimes you can convince 51% of people to do something wrong.