Professor’s Classroom
Subject: American History/Political Science
Paper #10
Tyranny of the majority was coined by de Tocqueville in his study and book, “Democracy In America”. A difficult political term to define….but I will try to explain it a bit……this is one of those terms in politics that takes thought and interpretation……depends where you stand, politically and who you are talking about…….
Tyranny of the majority, used in discussing systems of democracy and majority rule, is a criticism of the scenario in which decisions made by a majority under that system would place that majority’s interests so far above a dissenting individual’s interest that the individual would be actively oppressed, just like the oppression by tyrants and despots.
And then there was the Federalist #10 written by James Madison:
No. 10 addresses the question of how to guard against “factions,” or groups of citizens, with interests contrary to the rights of others or the interests of the whole community. In today’s discourse the term advocacy group or special interest group often carries the same connotation. Madison argued that a strong, large republic would be a better guard against those dangers than smaller republics—for instance, the individual states.
But first, in case there is any confusion, the Federalist Papers were a bunch of editorials written by founding fathers that were in support of a strong central government during the debate over the “new” Constitution.
What can we say about this subject?
If you are old enough to remember your Civics class….what was the major theme of the class? America is Great and majority rule….right?
Okay that is out of the way…….now let us look at any given public traded corporation……it takes a majority of the shareholders to pass any issue that confronts the operation of the company….That is call ‘Majority rules”! Then why when a majority, a simple majority, of 51% a bad thing….I was taught that the majority rules….is it rue or not?
Basic fact of human nature (again – sorry)…
If there is no financial interest involved, then politicians can listen to the people or not, as they choose and then the people can choose to throw them out at election time, or not, as THEY choose. It’s not great, but it could be worse – like when you introduce that MONEY element – almost EVERYONE has a price at some level!
Talking of which, would the C*A (assuming they’re listening as they usually do) please pass this on – if anyone, from any political group, wants to offer me a few million tax free dollars, I’ll happily shut up…. aw, go on… a million then? half a mill? Oh, come ON! Don’t be so bloody mean!
😆
Since I was popular with COINTPRO back in the day…I would assume they are listening……wait! you analysis is for sell? Does that not make you a politician? Lol
Only if the price is right 😈
Tyrrany of the majority is one of those terms that the party out of power throws around to make it sound like our rights are being trampled. That is why you are things like Obama is destroying America or Bush is turning us into a fascist state. If you think about it, maybe it is the tyranny of representation we need to worry about. 😉
Actually, it is not 51% that you need for ToM… you only need 50% + 1 to oppress the 50% – 1. :twisted”
“Tyranny of Representaton” – exactly so. 😈
I have always found the term ToM to be fascinating and in college I got so many definitions of it from too professors….in reality it means what you want it to mean…..de Tocqueville was a genius…he got people arguing over something they do NOT understand….now that is cool….
“…arguing over something they do not understand” – we’re back to politicians!
Yep…it seems to all come down to those little pricks, huh?
Always…