According to 1768 UK MP Edmund Burke, representatives should be trustees, not delegates - they should be free to act according to their own judgement rather than bend to popular pressures.

However, parliaments should never disregard protests as unreasoned, unenlightened or excessive. The job of the parliament as a representative institution is to study and remedy popular complaints rather than dismiss them. Even violent protesters never forfeited their right to representation.

The consequences of that disregarding can be disastrous. Even while it looks like people can “do nothing else”, they “will always be able to annihilate you”. Governments rest ultimately on popular opinion: if the people decide in large numbers to withhold their assent to obey, then something closer to a revolution could result.

References

• https://theconversation.com/modern-democracies-are-in-crisis-could-18th-century-political-theorist-edmund-burke-help-us-find-a-way-out-220341