This is a good start. As @James notes above, there ultimately always ends up being someone with ultimate authority anyway. In not-for-profits, that ends up being the board (whatever we may call them). So it’s very important to safeguard the board from undue influence, and a lot of that comes down to culture and who we elect. Going a little bit into my comment in another thread - I am intrigued by the idea of a referendum process that could override a board decision. I’ve never seen that done in a legal entity before, because the board of a legal organization is the ultimate decision making authority. That isn’t to say that can’t work; I’m just intrigued by it and would love to see how that might work. However, democracies are also subject to subversion, so that is definitely a double edged sword as @James says.
Some questions that would immediately stand out to me is – who is qualified to vote in a referendum? Who has standing to demand/request one? How would we guard against a situation where a referendum is stacked against the best interests of the community?