In the minds of the Spanish people of Catalonia the referendum was completely illegitimate, why would they vote in it?

Because it was run by the democratically elected legitimate government of Catalonia. Because it had immense popular support.

So it had immense popular support but most people didn’t participate? Maybe they didn’t realise how immense the support was...

My mistake, I thought demos was the people not the "voters". /s

Not voting in an illegal ballot seems reasonable. The rule of law is a cornerstone of democracy as too are free and fair elections.

And self-determination is the cornerstone of international rights, up there in Article I of the Charter of the UN.

For me, 70 out of 135 elected representatives is a more democratic mandate than the referendum. Not a fan of referendums.

Cornerstone? Isn't recognition of nation states the cornerstone?

Art 1.2 talks of maintaining peace amongst the nation's through respect for "equal rights and self-determination of peoples". To me that puts self-determination below democratic process, reversing them would not respect equal rights.

http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/chapter-i/index.htm...

What you can't do is to reward people voting on a poll that the majority does not want to vote in.

Why not? If the majority doesn't want to make their opinion known, that's fine, but I don't see how they can blame others for continuing on despite their silence.

Because then every minority can vote whatever they want. A few of your neighbours can vote to kick your family out of your house. A few rival supporters can vote to kick your team out of your favourite league. Some students can vote to kick your kids out of college because they do not like them. If we let anyone to invent polls and votes that affect the majority of people then nonsense happens.

> Because then every minority can vote whatever they want.

I don't see why that would be a problem. In fact, we already do that all the time. Look at the voting turnout for a large number of elections. Are you seriously suggesting that >50% of voters have to vote on something (that they may or may not be properly informed about) to make it legitimate?

I generally don't vote on my local school and education laws, because I don't have kids, and don't follow that system enough to be properly informed. My city has a low percentage of parents, so I'm assuming that a lot of other people don't either. If the choice is between everyone voting on stuff that they don't understand, or only those who care enough vote, I'll take the later every time.