very interesting quetions, but no simple answers. Tried to summarize main results of participation research to answer it, see: https://blog.oup.com/2017/02/democracy-populism-political-participation/

Best, Jan

Dear Jan, thank you for your reply.  I think that part of the problem making it difficult to find proper answers in the face of extreme democratic outcomes is the fact that most of our attention have been on studying and understanding how democracy works under normal democratic outcomes.  Now that we have seen extreme democratic outcomes like BREXIT and USEXIT we find that the normal approach does not work.....

Nothing negative about the extreme democratic outcome's personality seems to stick or nothing negative about the negative extreme democratic outcome impact appears to stick....to the amusement of the opposition and the media.....Why this is the case?.  I think there is a mismatched normal democratic outcome-extreme democratic outcome engagement.....

I am right now putting together two papers that will address this mismatch and provide a look at democracy under extreme democratic outcomes....Sharing here early version of one of those two projects I should complete soon:

https://www.researchgate.net/project/BREXIT-and-USEXIT-Stating-the-Sustainability-Conditions-Under-Which-Extreme-Democratic-Outcomes-Such-as-These-Should-Be-Expected-to-Take-Place-Using-Qualitative-Comparative-Means

What kinds of outcomes quality as EDO?  Would the election of Trump qualify as an EDO?  Some EDO are quite innovative in their own way - to combat them may require equally innovative strategies/tactics to reverse the EDO.  Has there been any research on how to develop counter-acting approaches to EDO?  Perhaps there are certain approaches that can be appropriately deployed against different types of EDO?

Dear William, thanks for your comment.  Both BREXIT and USEXIT are extreme democratic outcomes taking place under "what seems impossible has happened" and explaing the after the fact social discontent and the innability of pollters to predict them as good as they tend to predict normal democratic outcomes(NDO).....

EDO should be expected to be innovative, but disruptive as they reflect the will of a true minority, not the will of the true majority......However, most of our models and theories of democracy as based on expectations of normal democratic outcomes.....

Now that two cases of EDO came to light in 2016, UK and USA we see that the opposition has been or it is trying to deal with an EDO using NDO retoric/political action.....Because of that gap, nothing seems to stick to the EDO in the same way as it would have stuck to a NDO.....

.My point is that to deal with EDO properfly we need to be clear when they should be expected to take place or how to avoid them; and when they can take place how the opposition could keep them in check or roll the system back to NDO in the next election or referendum.....

I think as I said in my comment above we need to focus theories on democracy on explaning EDO, not just NDO, which is the aim of my next two papers on NDO and EDO.

Have a nice day

The procedures sequential choice and fund voting create conditions which be sure place the extremes where they belong, or, more likely, prevent the extremes to come into existence in a serious extent.

Good day Bjorm, thank you for writing.  Yes, there are different ways to filter democratic outcomes, but I am interested in expanding democracy models based on majority rule to explain not just the nature of normal democratic outcomes(NDO), but also the nature of extreme democratic outcome(EDO)....Which are the conditions under which extreme democratic outcomes(EDO) should be expected to take place? and knowing that how they can be addressed once they happened?....As I indicated above what ever seens to be written about democracy and majority rule seems to be written from the normal democratic outcome point of view / the expected outcome, the BREXIT and USEXIT situation do not match traditional democratic theory in my opinion as the unexpected happened....this is the reason I thought it would be nice to bring some new ideas into consideration and write about them, which I am currently doing..

Thank you for writing, have a nice day.

I may repeat me in a way. In my opinion it is just the shortcomings of majority rule that canalize opinions to extreme standpoints. Democracy based on sequential choice and fund voting is without some of the shortcomings that characterize democracy based on majority rule.

http://abcd.is/en/review-by-peter-kurrild-klitgaard.html

I may repeat my self too Bjorn, true democracy model based on majority rule can lead to normal democratic outcomes(NDO) and to extreme democratic outcomes(EDO); and in my opinion democracy models so far has been concerned only with  or defined to deal with normal democratic outcomes expectations(NDO).....

Now BREXIT and USEXIT have shown that there is a need to understand under which conditions and under majority rule based democracy these EDOs take place.....

From my point of view, EDOs are needed checks on the health of democracy  as they shake  voter complacency to the core and bring democratic energy back into the participation/accountability process.of democracy to make sure that "what seems impossible does not happen"....

In my paper I show that under no complacency and majority rule there can only be normal democratic outcomes(NDO): the wish of the true majority rules;  and I point out that under general true majority complacency only extreme democratic outcomes take place(EDO): the wish of the true minority rules....So under no complacency.....the short coming you may see in majority rule based democracy models are not there....

Thank you for your reply/comment Bjom and I will leave it here.  And I will share my paper when published.

There are so many ways of counting votes, that "normal outcomes" in one system may be regarded as "abnormal" (extreme) in another.  Adding to this complication, is the fact that once elected, governments have considerable "room to manoeuver," so they can ignore the wishes of one sector of the public in favor of another.  No one has yet translated "the democratic ideal" into the design of an administration, or figured out how to create and maintain ongoing public support.  As Plato pointed out long ago, even the citizens of Ancient Athens were often complacent - all of the modern developments in media  and transparency usually do not overcome the selfish desires of many citizens to focus on their immediate, private concerns rather than broader citizenship responsibilities.  Lastly, significant social change usually requires "extreme democratic outcomes," so whenever this occurs, watch out for ED)O.

Agree William, that is exactly the contect under which these two papers are based, with the goal of providing a framework to highlight the strucrure and implications of both outcomes within the voting system.....

if you know combined democracy structure those who wish to remain under NDOs have a clear idea of what to do within the democracy model as well as those wishing an EDO; and when the outcome is known they can use the inverse framework to deal with it now and to create the conditions for change in the next run....

Thank you for your comment William, have a nice day.

“Which are the conditions under which extreme democratic outcomes(EDO) should be expected to take place? and knowing that how they can be addressed once they happened?”

 EDO can be expected where there is high dependence on leadership.  In other words the extreme outcome is proportional to the degree democracy is lacking—democracy being rule by the people, not rule by a leader. 

 David Cameron had a bit too much power, held a plebiscite and it bit him.  (Charles de Gaulle did something similar.)  The UK’s democratic system is now doing its best to address the leader’s carnage—replace him (hope the replacement is nicer) and try to patch up the politics. 

 In a dictatorships of course, you might say extreme outcomes are normal.  But wherever the chief executive is directly elected the polity is delivered up to the leader’s whims to a fair extent.  So presidential democracies are somewhat unstable and extreme outcomes are more common there than in parliamentary democracies.  South Korea, the Philippines, and Brazil are vivid current examples, and EDOs are common in the presidential countries of Latin America and eastern Europe.  Apart from Brexit, you struggle to find an EDO in a parliamentary democracy. 

 So on that interpretation, Brexit and the election of Trump conform to democratic theory—they are the result of non-democratic loopholes.  As I understand it, neither was a case of majority rule. 

 JS Mill worried about the tyranny of the majority but that is a myth.  More real is the tyranny of the mob led by the demagogue.  The trick is to have a political system without loopholes allowing demagogues to get through. 

 Britain holds one plebiscite and the sky falls in.  Switzerland has held many hundreds of referendums with no extremes anywhere.  Switzerland, it is said, does not have a government, only an administration.  As one of the richest countries, I don't think the Swiss need any EDOs to shake them from any alleged complacency. 

Good day Mike, thank you for your comments.:

This is the key linking EDOs, the majority rule expectation breaks down because of general true majority complacency and the unexpected  or what it seems impossible to the true majority happens, the true minority wins, which leads to the after the fact widespread true majority show of discontent/protests and questionings of the results.....

"So on that interpretation, Brexit and the election of Trump conform to democratic theory—they are the result of non-democratic loopholes.  As I understand it, neither was a case of majority rule."

Both in BREXIT AND USEXIT the majority rule system breaks down under general true majority complacency, which led the true majority to either not vote or go the protest vote in the belief that their vote does not matter anyway and the status quo of the true majority will prevail anyway and hello EDOs...General complacency led voting behavior leads voters to vote without carefully thinking about the impact of that behavior may have under their current and future benefits and rights....

Besides sharing ideas consistent with the comments above in these two papers I make the point that now that we have a BREXIT, a USEXIT, and other possible EDOs there is a need to look at when EDOs should be expected, how to deal with them if you are the opposition now to live under them and to create future conditions for going back to NDOs......

The 2015 election in Canada was a NDO,  but 2016 brought us BREXIT and USEXIT are EDOs.

I will share my papers when published to expand on ideas and share comments.

Have a nice day.

Dear friends, just sharing this with you unpublished the article below about extreme democratic outcomes, you can take it as food for thoughts.

Have a nice day!

Majority Rule Based True Democracy Under Complacency Theory: Pointing Out The Structure of Normal and of Extreme Democratic Outcomes Analytically and Graphically.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319743153_Majority_Rule_Based_True_Democracy_Under_Complacency_Theory_Pointing_Out_The_Structure_of_Normal_and_of_Extreme_Democratic_Outcomes_Analytically_and_Graphically

Article Majority Rule Based True Democracy Under Complacency Theory:...

Dear friends, you can now read when you have time the unpublished version of ART122 here and use it as food for thoughts, the one shared above is now published:

Upside Down Democratic Outcomes: Stating the Complacency Conditions Under Which Extreme Democratic Outcomes Such as BREXIT and USEXIT Should Be Expected to Take Place Using Qualitative Comparative Means

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320443702_Upside_Down_Democratic_Outcomes_Stating_the_Complacency_Conditions_Under_Which_Extreme_Democratic_Outcomes_Such_as_BREXIT_and_USEXIT_Should_Be_Expected_to_Take_Place_Using_Qualitative_Comparative_Mean

Respectfully yours;

Lucio

Some food for thoughts on democracy under amorality can be found here in this paper:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329905677_Moral_and_Amoral_Liberal_Democracies_How_Targeted_Chaos_Can_Affect_the_Democratic_Process