Majoritarianism

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines majoritarianism as the philosophy or practice according to which decisions of an organized group should be made by a numerical majority of its members. The United Kingdom is defined as a majoritarian government through its strengths and rightfully so, however there are various limitations that affect this label and make it seem more of a consensus democracy at times. Whether or not the United Kingdom is a truly majoritarian government is up for debate.…

Government is necessary for the country and maintaining its control. Without government, we’d have anarchy, which is the lack of government. With anarchy comes chaos, and with chaos comes destruction. We have a government in order to prevent the destruction of our beloved country. We elect representatives in our democracy of a government to create laws and protect us from chaos. Basically our government is meant to help the people distinguish morals and punish those who do not abide to the…

Both The Federalist Papers and Democracy in America largely praise democracy, but they have their fair share of criticism reserved for democratic government as well. The issues of majority factions, persecution of dissenting opinions, and individualism are touched on in one or both works as examples of flaws in democracy. The primary threat to democracy, as James Madison articulated in Federalist #10, is the influence of factions on political life. The existence of competing factions can lead…

Abstract Judicial review allows judges to review the lawfulness of a decision or action by a public body exercising a public role. Judicial review is concerned with how the law is being applied, along with the procedures followed. It is known to be one of the most effective and powerful institutions capable of convincing a public body to review a decision and to a certain extent force them to take different actions. The power granted to judicial courts has allowed emerging controversy on behalf…

India’s democratic longevity is anomalous to modernisation theory’s claim of a correlative relationship between economic development and democracy. However, this anomaly does not disprove modernisation theory, but rather is symptomatic of its inapplicability in many democratising countries today. To address this tension, this essay will outline the theoretical foundations of modernisation theory and subsequently offer an institutionalist and voluntarist approach in revealing its inapplicability…

Canovan in her article ‘Trust the people’ writes how she is sceptical of populism. Although highlighting many negative points of populism she suggests it reinvigorates democracy and is always inevitable. Like Canovan I am sceptical of populism, as she calls it the “shadow of democracy” but I go one further to believe populism does indeed have no place in a well-functioning democracy. Firstly, one must define a well-functioning democracy: this allows the demos to limit government power due to…

Bostonistan’s may be skeptical of a body of government only indirectly elected by the people its role of revisiting and slowing down the legislative processes emphasizes accountability and putting high value on counteracting the temptation of majoritarianism which diminishes and potentially destroys democracy. To illustrate its effectiveness, over the last half century Germany has not encountered a manufactured…