, Columnist
Bring On the Other EU Referendums
Populists in many countries want direct votes on EU membership. That's not a bad idea.
Let them vote.
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Since the Brexit vote, Europe’s populists -- and the Scottish and Irish losers of the U.K. ballot -- have had referendums on their mind. What if they, too, get lucky the way Brexiteers did? Simultaneously, there’s a predictable backlash against plebiscites from the intellectual elite: How can people be allowed to give binary answers in complex situations they don’t fully understand?
The populists have the better case: Despite all its shortcomings, direct democracy is still the best way to figure out how people want to be governed.