Total Democracy?

I find it scary because, as TheAlaniDragonRising has intimated, this would create a society where there is no difference between public opinion and government policy, and in such a society I find it hard to see how minority rights could be guaranteed or protected. It also destroys any concept of expertise (although in fairness it's not clear how we can attribute much expertise to the career politicians of the real world either!) And, since Athens is really the only thing like a "test case" we have, someone ought to point out that Athenian government policy was crazily erratic, that poor Athenian government triggered the entirely needless Peloponnesian War, and that poor Athenian government further led to Athens losing the Peloponnesian War (which, on paper, they should never have lost).

Something like a republic is better - we basically appoint an oligarchy to govern us, and if we don't like what they do we can kick them in the ballots come election time. It's not perfect, but I'll take it over mob rule.

I'm not too sure total democracy has been put into practice or a good idea for anyone to do so.