At first direct democracy seems to be a cool thing. The more direct the better. But there are a lot of caveats that can simply destroy direct democracy and turn it into a tyranny of the majority. We are not living in an ideal world after all.
Some points:
- People are not as informed as you think they are
- Popular votes turn into lobbying machines where money is useful to get signatures
- Letting poeple vote what is written directly into the constitution makes it harder to govern. What's the point of a government, when 80% of the budget is prescheduled?
Direct democracy is good. But there needs to be some “cooling down” implemented. In Switzerland it works quite well. In California it does not.
The tyranny of the majority:
http://www.economist.com/node/15127600