Juice Box wrote:Regardless of which side searched up what, it's clear that this is proof of how a general population is unfit to vote on important political matters. It would have been great if people searched that BEFORE voting, but AFTER? When everything is done and nothing about it can be changed anymore? It's horribly pathetic that people voted on something most of them knew little about, not even the consequences it'll bring. It only furthers my point that a country should be run by a licensed minority, since apparently even a well-off country with abundant resources like Britain can't be asked to do something as simple as care enough about political matters.
What you are referring to is called the Elite Theory.
The problem with this kind of government is that it creates a very strong possibility for the "deserving minority" to exclude anyone else from entering the group, by having exclusive voting rights you can make it almost impossible from certain people that should deserve a vote to actually get it. Giving too much power to very few people is dangerous, since corruption is present in all types of regimes and not only in open democracies.
The one benefit of an open democracy (pluralism) is that, for the most part, no segment of a population holds political power over other segments. On the other hand, Elitism can lead to political, ethnical, religious and sexual persecution without any of the boundaries that are established when a Parliament and the Executive power are accountable to the entire population.
So while it remains true that democracies are flawed, and they are susceptible to bad electoral situations such as this particular referendum. It also holds true that it provides guarantees to reduce the amount of second class citizens and sanctioned persecution of minorities.
However, this was certainly a lesson on the dangers of having an uninformed electorate and the dangers of demagoguery in a time and age when everyone can access the necessary information to vote for what you really want instead of being swayed by powerful slogans.