Isn't the main problem in ça that there are few limitations on how much can be spent to promote and initiative and essentially buy the result?
And this seems to impact the quality of representative democracy too...
My point in raising this incident is to provide an example that a direct referendum system has advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages seen here is that the system can be used to remove a right from minority population important to their cultural identity. More broadly, there's always a tension between majority rule and protection of minority rights in a democracy and both the California and Swiss referendum systems allow those lines to be redrawn by populist appeal.