If there is one lesson the UK should take from Yugoslavia it is this: referendums are terrible. These brief exercises in direct democracy not only fail to solve existential societal questions, but they bring to the fore societal divisions that had previously been channeled into civil political discourse (like in the UK) or, yes, been politically repressed (like in the case of Yugoslavia). Because they are almost always organised around issues that seem existential, their disruptiveness is also due to the fact that they are, mostly, irreversible. Unlike in elections, the losing side cannot redirect its anger into winning the next round because the matter had supposedly been settled forever.
Brexit: A Lesson from Yugoslavia (via claudinho)
As an aside, I wonder if this is one reason why the independence referendum in Scotland was less damaging: because the losing side was able to redirect its anger immediately into winning the general election a few months later, and indeed before that was able almost immediately to recast itself as the “not won yet” side rather than the “losing” side.
(via johnthelutheran)
I’m not sure Yugoslavia is the best typifier of referendums. Notably, both Switzerland & Ireland have pretty regular referenda, with no ill effects.
