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How can a system of majority rule be called the rule of the people? There are always winners and losers and the majority rules over the minority. Even democracy is therefore a system of coercion, domination and the separation between rulers and ruled. The majority coerces the minority so that it respects its decisions. The power to set rules that other people can be coerced to obey by threat of penalty is the power to control other people’s lives, and that’s morally questionable. Calling it a democracy doesn’t change the fundamental problem.
Hence, a real democracy seems to require a system of decision by unanimity. In any other system there are always people who do not decide and who do not have autonomy or freedom in the sense of control over their own lives. Is there a difference between being ruled by one person and being ruled by the majority? Not really I guess, just that in the latter case domination is harder to see.
However, unanimity is usually not feasible, and is probably undesirable as well. If anything, democracy promotes plurality. Unanimity, or better apparent and enforced unanimity, is more typical of authoritarianism and is therefore hardly a better route to freedom.
Perhaps we can solve this problem in the following way. In a democracy, there is a majority whose wishes are given priority at a certain moment, but only temporarily. And there is a minority whose wishes are temporarily rejected. The minority’s wishes can always be presented to the general public, even after a decision has been made. These wishes can be promoted and defended, and they can perhaps become a new and future will of the majority. The majority and minority are not fixed groups, and they differ over space as well as over time: for each issue or decision, the majorities and minorities are different. In a well-functioning democracy, no one is part of a permanent and crosscutting majority or minority.
These two attributes of majority rule – possibility to change the majority over time, and separate majority decisions for as many problems as possible – maximize the chances that every individual can fulfill as many of his or her desires as possible. Unanimity rule would seem to offer a 100% chance, but given that unanimity is not realistic, majority rule is the best we can get. It guarantees that as many people as possible can fulfill as many of their desires as possible, because everyone is in the majority for some decisions and even when they’re not they can become so in the future. The minority, the group of persons supposedly living under the rule of the majority, is not a homogenous or unchanging group. It always consists of other persons and this makes the yoke of the minority a bit easier to carry.
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However, that is only true in a well-functioning democracy. Asymmetric power relations in non-ideal democracies can increase some groups’ chances of being in the majority. If they have a lot of money or good lobbyists, they can steer decisions towards their wishes. And that can bring back the specter of the rule of men over men. Furthermore, demographics can be such that certain ethnic or linguistic minorities are permanently relegated to the political minority, for instance when the majority ethnic group consistently votes as a block and against the interests of the minority. In that case, democracy will have to provide some form of political autonomy or federal self-rule to the minority.
Another way out of the problem of majority rule is to argue that all rights, including the right of a majority to decide political matters, imply the power to control the lives of others. My right to property gives me the right to exclude others from it; my right to free speech gives me the right to stop others from violating my freedom of speech, etc.
More posts in this series are here.
Good and relevent thoughts – thank you. In fact, as you probably know, Rousseau worried a lot about this very point and devoted a significant part of his Contrat Social to it. His way out was that people are not asked to vote for which option THEY prefer, but on their OPINION about what the GENERAL WILL of the public is. If they happen to be in the majority, then they are correct (what a coincidence!), and if not, then, they are merely incorrect in their judgment of what the general will is. The decision will always be dictated by the General Will. This is of course arguable, but an interesting interpretation nevertheless. I have discussed it in http://psriblog.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/on-the-social-contract/ as well.
Regards
Sriram
The legitimacy of majority rule is real when they respect the rights of minority.
Therefore, I recommend that the idea is more narrow than radical which makes the concept of democracy more complex.
Sure, democracy is more than majority rule and majorities should not and are allowed to violate the rights of minorities; but this doesn’t mean that minorities can’t legitimately suffer from majority rule.
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6 mass media corporations control more than half of the information we can see, hear or read (Comcast/GE, CBS/Westinghouse, Viacom, Disney, The News Corporation & Time-Warner/AOL). Is that “Freedom” of the Press?
The 72 corporations listed at http://www.cjr.org/resources/?c=viacom (Advance Publications, A.H. Belo Corporation, AMC Networks, American Media, Astral Media, Bertelsmann, Cablevision, CanWest Global Communications, etc.) control more than 80% of what we can see, hear or read. Is that Freedom of the Press?
72 multi-millionaires and billionaires have the “freedom” to determine the vast majority of what we can see, hear or read. 308,000,000 million Americans do not have the freedom to determine the vast majority of what we can see, hear or read. Is that Freedom of the Press?
Freedom of the Press is dead in the United States of America (1776-2011).
72 greedy rich people were given the “right” to dictate to you almost all of what you can see hear or read. 72 greedy rich people were granted the “right” to dictate to you what you can think and what you cannot think.
Time to pull the plug on media from those 72 greedy rich gigantic corporations and time to plug in to media that’s 72-free.
“Freedom” of the Press in the U.S.A. owned by 72 multi-millionaires and billionaires. “Freedom” of the Press all but denied to 308,000,000 other people in the U.S.A. (the “little people”). Time to re-establish Freedom of the Press in the United States of America.
72 greedy rich people dictate the vast majority of what can be seen, heard or read in the United States of America. And a small group of corrupt government officials have been letting them dictate.
Is there an alternative? Yes. Freedom of the Press. No more dictators.
Participate with pro Freedom of the Press organizations such as freepress.net, mikephilbin.blogspot.com and fair.org. Tell your friends and neighbors about the hypocrisy of “Freedom” of the Press in the United States of America today (2012). If you’re a billionaire and your name is Rupert then you have the “freedom” to shove 25% of the media that exists down the throats of hundreds of millions of people. And many many more “freedoms” too.
Demand Freedom of the Press from our elected officials. Vote elected officials out of office is they do not comply with the Constitution of the United States of America and the U.S. Bill of Rights (and the Declaration of Human Rights that the U.S. government also signed) in providing Freedom of the Press and insuring Freedom of the Press (and all of our rights and freedoms). Shine a light on the corrupt and greedy people who have robbed us of Freedom of the Press. Shine a light on the corrupt government officials who have let them rob us. Speak up. Speak out. With friends, family, neighbors, everyone. Demand accountability. Demand justice.
Work to restore Freedom of the Press in the United States of America. Expose the corruption and hypocrisy of 72 greedy rich people and the small group of corrupt officials who have served them (and not us; we, the people).
Get your media (news, radio, internet, print, newspapers, books, film) from individuals and groups who are NOT among those 72 greedy rich gigantic corporations that currently dictate the vast majority of what we can see, hear or read. Boycott the 72.
Demand from elected officals and un-elected government officials (e.g. the FCC) that equal time, equal air space, equal access and equal bandwidth be granted to TV, internet, radio, cable, news, etc who are NOT the 72.
Support the media who are not part of the 72, participate and volunteer if possible, donate, get to know them, click onto their shows, stand with them, be cohesive with them and help out to uphold our rights to Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech by insuring that the ’72-free’ media people are guaranteed the right to continue to broadcast and publish (via internet, via radio, via cable, via TV, via print).
When the non-72 are censored – shine a light on the censorship and work hard to end the censorship and restore their right (OUR RIGHT) to Freedom of the Press. When the 72-free are shut down or blacked out: shine a light and work hard to restore their broadcasts and their media messages. From infowars to Third World media sites to First World “72-free” media sites, see hear and listen to what they have to say; support them; see hear & read what they have to offer often, and shine a bright light and speak up loudly when they are censored or blacked out. Demand justice. Demand an end to censorship. Demand an end to the monopoly of the 72.
Anyone skeptical about how deeply we’ve been robbed of our Freedom of the Press – by a small group of greedy rich people and a small group of corrupt government officials – look at the blogs, the 72-free sites, the 72-free programs, the 72-free print, the 72-free films, the 72-free radio and any 72-free media that you can access.
What a different world they are telling us about!
Many of the best 72-free sites (sites free of these 72 gigantic mass media corporations like The News Corporation, Viacom and Time Warner) from around the world will have many Firefox moments of: “Server not found …” and many Google Chrome moments of “Oops! Google Chrome could not find that website” and many IE moments of “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage”. (Unless Firefox was taken over by the 72, Firefox is my main browser.) They’re letting you know you found some of the hottest what’s new media there is. Shine a light on the censorship, the media black outs and tell as many people as you can. Spread the word. Demand that media black outs come to an end.
As you move forward to becoming 72-free, you will discover the best news stories, the truth you just can’t find with the Big 6 Mass Media Mega-Corporations, the truth you can’t even find with the Big 72 Corporations; movies that make you feel real emotions, real humor, real feelings of love, real action, real suspense, real people, real places, and more; radio like you’ve never heard radio before; video games that are uplifting and truly a pleasure to enjoy (not dulling, draining and zombiefiying like the products from the 72 gigantic Mass Media corporations). True news you just can’t get from the 72, real movies, real radio, real internet, FREE internet, real books; welcome to world of the 72-free, welcome to a world of Freedom of the Press (again!). Come early and come often. 86 the 72.
The power to click is at your fingertips.
Any way, I have nothing tosay concerning this.