How are referendums not democracy? It's just direct democracy as opposed to the far more common representative democracy.
It does occasionally result in (in my views) appalling choices, but that doesn't make it non-democratic.
It does occasionally result in (in my views) appalling choices, but that doesn't make it non-democratic.
And then democracy is not democracy without civil and human rights, even for minorities. The reasons are too many to discuss here. For starters someone who is in fear of the state or who fears for his property because the state doesn't protect him, can't vote or be elected freely.
But that also means that the majority can't vote to violate these rights for a minority. That's a point about democracy that is increasingly lost in the European democratic tradition and it will lead to ugly results down the road.
The extremists are capitalizing on this misconception: They want to restrict the rights of minorities by having referendums. And because of ignorance on the side of the voters, this actually "looks" more democratic...