Quote Originally Posted by Xiahou
(.../...) I wonder in how many of the countries where it has or will be passed by their legislatures it would've failed if left to a referendum?
Most of them. Referendum was a massive yes in Spain, but that's because Spain had a huge growth the las 30 years(after centuries of decline). Therefore Spain people feel confident in the future. France unfortunately does have economic problems since the same time. Confidence is not there. People fear the future - and say no to whatever(which make me sad).

But Holland will be the same Wednesday, for similar reasons(maybe more cultural, though). Germany's representants did vote yes, but a referendum would have been random. UK is more complex, people's choice will be a no, while representant's choice would be tough to anticipate.

That's the weakpoint of democracy : managing a state/local authority is a professional's work, & those professional are not standard citizens. They're specialists - as the job requires specialists. And this leads to distortions between representatives & commoners. This is also true in other forms of government(dictature, monarchy, theocracy, etc...), but is more a problem in democracy as it does not fit with democracy's own principles. But hell, I do like living in a democracy anyways, I can shout "hell to Chirac" & not risk being emprisoned.