Mage246
Just because representative democracies can abuse minorities as well does not mean that they do not have advantages over direct democracies in this respect. One of the advantages is that there's a bit of a delay between the desire to persecute minorities and when it can actually be accomplished. This delay is caused by needing to elect representatives sympathetic to these views or influence the ones currently in office. The longer the delay, the greater the chance that cooler heads will prevail. It won't always work, but it's better than the instant action that direct democracy allows.
