All your comments re the EU were spot on, but the above is particularly apposite here in Ireland, where we're in the throes of another EU referendum to approve the Lisbon Treaty. This is the second time we're being asked to vote on the same Treaty, having rejected it last year.
A particular cry from those, Left, Centre and Right, who support the Lisbon Treaty is that "four million people can't be allowed to frustrate the ambitions of 500 million". The Irish Supreme Court in the late 1980's held that all EU treaties have to be approved by popular referendum here, and this is an ongoing cause of outrage among the advocates of closer European integration. Ireland is the only member of the EU where a popular vote on Lisbon has been held - the vote on 2 October will be the fourth vote on an EU treaty since 2001.
Because the EU is implicitly (and among initiates explicitly) based on the exclusion of democratic accountability, as you accurately note, the veto the Irish electorate enjoys over EU treaties is the only element where voters possess real power and influence. It will be interesting to see how long this lasts if we reject Lisbon a second time; as it would be ludicrous to ask us to vote for a third time, although I would not be surprised if we were.