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Chloe’ Strickland
Professor Shelton
Media Law
1 February 2017

The Tyranny of the Majority

Sometimes, “majority rules” is not always the best course of action to take.

According to Professor Aeon Skoble in the video Democracy, Tyranny, and Liberty,

democracy does not always produce the most freedom-friendly outcomes.

“The democratic voting system is a helpful way to figure out what most people

think, but that is not the same as figuring out what is right,” Skoble said.

It is also possible for these democratic structures to be against freedom.

Sometimes democracy can make the majority rule seem as if it is the correct decision, but

just because the vast majority of people agree on something does not make it necessarily

true.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states “Congress shall

make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise

thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people

peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This means that the ultimate role and duty of the government is to protect the

rights of the individual. Democratic structures are not immuned to these guidelines. There

still must be boundaries on this process that will protect each person’s rights.
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“If the goal is liberty, then democratic structures have to be themselves bounded

by bordering conditions that keep people safe from what John Stuart Mill calls the

‘tyranny of the majority,’” Skoble said.

The founders of this country knew that the democratic process could potentially

lead to forms of tyranny. If a group of people are arguing and do not know which path to

take, they may seek the answer in new guidance and leadership. Historically, this

democratic process is how many tyrants actually came into power.

To protect from this, the founders created several anti-majority rules that can be

found in the Constitution. One of those rules is that the election of the president is not

decided by majority vote, but by the Electoral College. If the decision was made simply

by majority rule, less populous states would have hardly any say in the matter.

“Our founders intended for us to have a republican form of limited government

where political decision-making is kept to the minimum,” said Walter E. Williams,

professor of economics at George Mason University.

It is important to remember that the government is there to protect the rights of

the individual, not the rights of the majority.

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Works Cited

[Learnliberty]. (2011, October 4). Democracy, Tyranny and Liberty. [Video File].

Retrieved from LearnLiberty.org.

Williams: Majority rule not always best choice. (2016, April 07). Retrieved February 03,

2017, from http://amarillo.com/opinion/opinion-columnist/weekly-opinion-

columnist/2012-11-20/williams-majority-rule-not-always-best