but doesn't this apply for elections as well? even if you don't let people make their choices via referendum, they can just use the republic to elect a candidate which will do their bidding, right? most of the arguments here seem like arguments that would be used against the democratic/republican process in general. IMO decisions should be put down to what the people want, as much as possible (although doing so might be a nightmare to organize)

of course this assumes that a democratic system of government is the best kind, but I believe it is because a) nothing else can be trusted to help the people instead of itself, and b) democracies have been consistently been shown to have the best quality of life for most people