[governance] tyranny of majority (was Re: Debunking eight myths about multi-stakeholderism)

[Seth Johnson]

I wouldn't put it quite that way.  In democratic systems (with all
adequate components) we have the prospect of recourse.  But
legislatures acting by majority principles can go wrong, and regularly
do.  One could easily say we're living in the tyranny of a majority in
the US, where so much of what our federal legislature does flouts
basic principles.  We've had a long course of difficulty getting
recourse (for one thing, the ability to get standing in courts
regarding the long-standing concerns regarding surveillance) -- but
the important thing is that the foundation is there such that
(regarding judicial review) we can *eventually* get a judge to say
"but that's not the country we created."


Seth

On Wed, Apr 29, 2015 at 5:36 AM, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Apr 2015 11:15:35 +0200
> Jean-Christophe Nothias <jeanchristophe.nothias at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> This tyranny of majority is an intriguing item.
>
> In governance systems which have majority voting but not the other
> essential elements of the modern understanding of democracy, it will
> sometimes happen that tyrannical, i.e. human rights violating, decision
> proposals are supported by a majority of votes, and therefore
> considered adopted. A famous example was the state-sanctioned murder of
> Socrates in ancient Athens.
>
> In democratic governance systems of course in such a situation there is
> the possibility to get the outcome of the vote overturned by a court
> decision on the basis that it is a human rights violation.
>
> In democratic governance systems therefore tyranny of majority does not
> occur.
>
> Greetings,
> Norbert
>
>
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