Democracy and the rule of the majority

In a previous post, I mentioned that democracy is about the will of the majority. That post was more about groupthink. Still, expanding on that line of thought (about democracy being the will of the majority), I think it is better to say that democracy is about the rule of the majority.

We like to think that democracies reflect the will of the people, but in practice, that is rarely the case. While the elected leaders may reflect the will of the people, the system of government that is being run by these elected leaders usually do not. For example, in the parliamentary system, the government is formed by the party that has a majority of seats. Policies are then implemented by the government. For example, let's say 60% of the people vote for Party A. Party A then gets to form the government, which may well be 100% filled by members of Party A. In a way, 60% of the people decided how the entire country will be run.

The congressional system is similar too. Laws get passed by majority. So if Party B wins 60% of the votes and seats (assuming seats have a linear relation to votes; that is usually not the case since there are electoral boundaries and gerrymandering), Party B gets to decided on all laws. This means that the will of 40% of the people may never get reflected in how the country is run.

Throw in electoral boundaries and gerrymandering, and you may even end up with a weird case of the government/parliament/congress reflecting the will of 48% (or somewhere around that figure) of the people. But that is a sidetrack.

What does this mean if you happen to be in that 40%? Well, you are then relying on the goodwill of the 60%. You are hoping that they will be charitable and take into account your needs. But there is no guarantee that they will.

Take the recent case of the United States. A Supreme Court Justice passed away. That leaves a vacant seat. In 2016, Republicans held the majority in the Senate, and decided to leave the seat vacant. Because they could. They were the majority, and they had the say. In 2020, Republicans are still the majority, and now they want to fill that seat. Why? Because they can. They are the majority. In a democracy, if you are the majority, you set the rules. Nothing else matters.

We can put into place laws that prevent the tyranny of the majority, but given that laws are passed by the majority, such laws can also be revoked by the majority. Thus, such a system in itself is not a guarantee against the tyranny of the majority.

So if you are living in a country with a democratic system of government, and you happen to be in the minority... tough luck. Hope and pray that the majority has the goodwill to cater to your needs.