Tyranny of The Majority
“Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority” - Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
The tyranny of the majority is a concept that comes up when discussing democracy, though not always named outright, it is alluded to from ancient Greece and is still discussed today, like in this article. A brief description of the tyranny of the majority would be that the majority, the dominating group, holds authority and sway over the minority, the dominated group. This relationship can lead to a form of tyranny akin to the tyranny found in authoritarian regimes from the tyrant or leader, but now the tyrant is the majority of a group, a plurality instead of the individual. We are going to look at some excerpts from political theorists and/or philosophers that discuss the concept of the tyranny of the majority.
In Gorgias, Plato may have the first written account of talking about the tyranny of the majority, through Callicles in his discussion with Socrates, “the makers of laws are the majority who are weak; and they make laws and distribute praises and censures with a view to themselves and to their own interests; and they terrify the stronger sort of men, and those who are able to get the better of them, in order that they may not get the better of them,” Here, Callicles is discussing how laws are set by a majority who looks after their interests, an interesting question to ask is what happens when the laws that are passed are not in the interest of the minority, what if you find a law to be morally repugnant?
The actual phrase ‘tyranny of the majority’ is said to have been coined by Alexis de Tocqueville in his work ‘Democracy in America’ chapter XV(1835-1840). In that book, de Tocqueville says this of the tyranny of the majority, “A majority taken collectively may be regarded as a being whose opinions, and most frequently whose interests, are opposed to those of another being, which is styled a minority. If it be admitted that a man, possessing absolute power, may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries, why should a majority not be liable to the same reproach?” de Tocqueville acknowledges that the majority can be tyrannical to the minority that goes against them.
Another thinker who discusses the concept is John Stuart Mill, who touches on the topic in his book ‘On Liberty’. James Madison as well in his Federalist 10 talks about the majority in his critique of factions and how to combat them, “A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert results from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party, or an obnoxious individual.”
A contemporary example of the tyranny of the majority is in the discussion of the Electoral College in the US. This is ultimately an urban vs. rural discussion, with some, typically large populated states, wanting to do away with the Electoral College as they feel the popular vote should be the deciding factor.
The Tyranny of the Majority is an interesting concept, as it realizes the tyrannical aspect of the citizenry of a state rather than just the tyrannical aspect of the government or the leader.
