The failure of politics

What is democracy? Is simply the majority voting for something? Can we, for example, have a law that requires the rapid deportation of all non-UK citizens because the majority voted for it in a referendum? Before you rush to say people won't vote for that, I remind you that we have lived through "people won't vote for that".

Should they be asked the question? If not why not? It is a simple enough question to put the voters and they understand the consequences.

Who decides what are things we cannot ask or what are universal rights?  How are we to define the will of the people?

We know TV shows get great voter engagement, should we run democracy like that. After the news, we all get to vote on questions to be asked with answers and then we get to choose?
-It has the advantage of getting people involved and registering an opinion. The obvious flaw is that minds change, the need for reflection and debate. It cedes power to those who frame the choices. Engagement is wide but shallow.

Participative democracy at local levels, committees with procedures and rules, frequent meetings, long debates and decisions.
-In some ways the model, all views are heard and individuals can have great engagement. The danger is this is the world run by the self-selecting few who have the time / inclination / enthusiasm to turn up. Engagement is deep but narrow. Student Unions, for example, are notable for the proliferation of elected posts and lack of anyone else at their meetings.

Representative democracy, put a cross on the ballot paper, leave the winner of your voting group who spent time persuading you with a plan to sort out the decisions with other winners from other voting groups with a different plan.
- This is the current model in the Scotland and the UK. It tensions engagement against individual participation.

The process should not matter in an ideal world. Democracy requires compromises, politics is about arriving at compromises without violence. We are at a point now where we don't do compromise. Maybe we always we were, we just did not allow participation to the extent that this was visible. So I wonder how do we settle claims between groups? I suspect we are about to use violence.