Direct democracy sounds great but I doubt large enough fractions of the voters can be informed well enough (in a reasonable amount of time, not in general) to be actually aware of the consequences of their decisions on most topics.
If you want to read about a textbook example of under-informed voters getting more than they bargained for, look no further than [0] (or well, the "Brexit").
A national-conservative party wanted to limit immigration to Switzerland and put that up for decision. The Swiss voted in support of it but the issue is ... immigration is part of a treaty with the EU that is protected against such "cherry-picking" by a so-called "guillotine clause" [1]. Cancelling or failing to renew any part of the treaty voids it as a whole[2]. The government eventually implemented a very toned down version to avoid running afoul of the treaty because among other things that would have affected the other agreements on air traffic, road traffic, agriculture and science and more (see "Implementation" in [0] again).
If you want to read about a textbook example of under-informed voters getting more than they bargained for, look no further than [0] (or well, the "Brexit"). A national-conservative party wanted to limit immigration to Switzerland and put that up for decision. The Swiss voted in support of it but the issue is ... immigration is part of a treaty with the EU that is protected against such "cherry-picking" by a so-called "guillotine clause" [1]. Cancelling or failing to renew any part of the treaty voids it as a whole[2]. The government eventually implemented a very toned down version to avoid running afoul of the treaty because among other things that would have affected the other agreements on air traffic, road traffic, agriculture and science and more (see "Implementation" in [0] again).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Swiss_immigration_initiat...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillotine_clause
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland%E2%80%93European_U...