On Brexit and the governance of globalization

The outcome of the vote on Brexit surprised many people, myself included. Nonetheless, the fact that Brexit gained momentum should not come as a surprise. The reasons why Brexit became relevant do not necessarily have to do with populism and issues with democracy as many observers seem to imply. Populism is always a consequence of something else and the rants about "stupid" voters really miss the point. In this post I take a different perspective and ask: what if voters were actually behaving rationally?

Disclaimer: this post is long, not particularly well structured and has not been revised.