StingingVelvet: ... Direct democracy is ridiculous and should never be used. If every issue was decided by a massive poll of the people then nothing would ever change, because people hate change. Also most people are incredibly ill-informed and ambivalent. That's why most free countries are republics with representatives, and why most of those republics even have safeguards on the representatives. It's when these safeguards get bent that we end up with silly shit like Brexit, and when populous movements take over too much we get horrible candidates like Trump in office.
Not saying the elite/experts are perfect, far from it, but we're in a freaking death spiral the other direction. Moderation is needed.
The UK isn't a direct democracy and still it's in trouble. If it really would be a direct democracy, there would be a second referendum already scheduled for sure. But even that would face large problems like what question to ask. The negotiations currently do not evolve around a simple Yes or No but more about which kind of relationship the UK wants to have (customs union or free trade area, freedom of movement, common regulations, jurisdiction, that kind of things). That's a rather complex question and you cannot really decide that with a single question.
That's where the strength of a representative democracy comes into play. You can find compromises on complex matters which go beyond a Yes/No.
Elected representatives tend to belong to some rather privileged group (rich, educated, smart, upper class, sometimes all of these together) but that doesn't have to be, it's more of a side effect. Everyone can candidate and everyone is free to vote however he likes.
What I think currently is that having a strong constitution separating powers as well as staying away from extremes in election decisions is currently the best one can do. Everything else doesn't pay off in the long run. The real threat are autocratic systems which tend to suppress opposition by all means.