Earlier in democracy’s history, its operative principle was not considered to be ‘majority rule,’ but instead, ‘majority government.’ This expressed the idea that only those who had reached the ‘age of majority’ should be eligible to vote and participate in government. It was an age at which a person became a self-responsible adult, capable of exercising informed consent, and otherwise could be held responsible for his/ her actions.
In a free democracy, no one ‘rules’ anyone else. But in a democracy based on ‘majority rule,’ that principle no longer holds true.
The Left views ‘democracy’ as a system of ‘majority rule’ under which the winning group is given the legal authority to rule over other groups and individuals, all justified on the grounds of having achieved some kind of ‘majority.’
The Right views democracy as a system of governance in which no one can ‘vote’ to infringe upon anyone else’s right to Life Liberty and Property. Voting is restricted to matters of governance (justice, military, police, etc.) outside of the private sphere of activity. This would constitute majority government as opposed to majority rule.
Unfortunately most Western nations are now under the tyrannical rule of some majority, however defined or arrived at. Consequently, more and more observers cannot avoid concluding, as did Scotland’s Neil Oliver recently, that “the majority is never Right.”
Given Western culture’s steady democratic drift Leftward towards tyranny, it appears that this observation has merit. So the question that begs asking is why do Western electoral majorities continually vote themselves into increasing levels of tyranny?
To answer that question, we offer The ‘Majority Rule’ – a few principles and guidelines that will clarify perceptions of majorities and their political significance.
The first rule about majorities is that majorities are about ‘consensus,’ not about ‘consent.’ Majorities are defined in terms of groups and collectives. Politicians group people along any politically advantageous grounds: economic status, employment, occupation, language, heritage, religion, citizenship, sex, race, skin color, and of course, ideology. Putting people into groups is an easy way to create false political polarities, pitting one group against another.
Majorities are determined within the limits of their pre-defined grouping: a ‘majority’ of farmers, a ‘majority’ of black people, a ‘majority’ of Christians, a ‘majority’ of French-speaking people, a ‘majority’ of voters. And of course there was the ‘majority’ of scientists who concluded that Covid and climate change are existential threats to humanity. And let’s not forget the ‘majority’ of journalists who reported that Trump was a fascist and was colluding with the Russians.
It is essential that Western cultures free themselves from the tyranny of ‘majority’ thinking in governing themselves. To ensure that we live in a free society where no one ‘rules’ anyone else, the democratic principle of ‘majority rule’ must be re-framed in that light.
The ‘Majority Rule’ stipulates that the only place where such a perspective is shared by a ‘majority’ is on the political polarity that is Just Right.
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