Referendums are inconvenient. They can produce the wrong result. The people can't be trusted to know what's best. We should do away with them to safeguard the onward march of the European Union. Put somewhat crudely, that appears to be the view of the European Commission's president Jose Manuel Barroso. And whether he meant it or not, his appeal on Tuesday to member states to avoid referendums on the ratification of the EU constitution if they can do so will serve only to reinforce the view held by many that "Europe" is a big project owned by a bureaucratic elite which regards notions of popular sovereignty as a messy inconvenience.
Mr Barroso was speaking to Dutch journalists ahead of a report from their government which sidesteps the need for another referendum on whatever new constitutional treaty emerges, by referring it to the country's Council of State to decide the best form of ratification.
The referendum as a decision-making tool has been criticised before by many democrats. Historically it has been used by demagogues and dictators like Hitler and Mussolini to bulldoze through anti-democratic measures. James Madison saw direct democracy as a "tyranny of the majority" subverting representative democracy. In truth, although voters may be asked a specific question, they often answer an entirely different one.
But that's their prerogative. They have the right to take a different view in a democracy. Representative democracy has its flaws: the distance of decisions from voters breeds cynicism about democracy itself. Irish voters have an attachment to the referendum, a requirement for all constitutional change. It gives a greater sense of ownership of decisions. It gives particular legitimacy to major political landmarks or transitions like the Belfast Agreement, EEC accession, the divorce referendum, abortion, bail and successive EEC/EU treaties. It also often provides the opportunity for an exercise in political education that has certainly helped in the EU case to maintain Ireland at the top of the Eurobarometer poll league of supporters of the union.
Of the 22 states which have attempted to ratify the EU constitution only four have put the issue to popular votes - Spain and Luxembourg voted yes, while France and The Netherlands voted no. Of the seven states who have yet to ratify it only Sweden will do it by parliamentary vote, while the rest, because of political choice if not a legal requirement, were to hold referendums. The suggestion that they should not do so with what emerges from the talks on reviving the treaty is simply damaging to the "project" as a whole.