That said I personally think this is an extreme case.
I'll also admit that people - including me - are scaringly easy to manipulate in cases that are more complicated than this.
Generally I'm more in favour of the Swiss system where you meet in town and vote by raising your sword. (disclaimer: I think this might have changed now - I heard this was how it used to be done by someone I know who grew up there a decade or two (I guess) before I was born.
)
The Swiss have expert legislators that actually make the laws the way they want.
Grossly simplified, the populace can force a decision, but the specific implementation of the decision is created by lawmakers and later accepted by the population. If it is rejected the lawmakers get to have another go.
It is of course more direct than in America, though it is more a case of voters saying "We want this" and legislators saying "Ok, we tried to implement it in the best way we could. Do you accept?".
See under "Variance and standard deviation" in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton for a well known example.
That said I personally think this is an extreme case.
I'll also admit that people - including me - are scaringly easy to manipulate in cases that are more complicated than this.
Generally I'm more in favour of the Swiss system where you meet in town and vote by raising your sword. (disclaimer: I think this might have changed now - I heard this was how it used to be done by someone I know who grew up there a decade or two (I guess) before I was born. )