Tyranny of the majority

I agree with both Steven and Dan. The meaning of tyranny of the majority can be broken down. Tyranny means cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary use of power or control. I feel that tyranny of the majority is an oppression by the majority to the minority. I think if you are part of the majority that your mind conforms to what everyone else in the majority thinks. A good example that was discussed in lecture would be the American Indians. American Indians were the majority in this country until europeans started to migrate over. When they become the minority their opinions for the sake of the country no longer mattered. The indians were sent off to reservations while the european man (the majority) had control of the land and country. I also agree…

a gift basket rather than a sleeping bag filled with canned goods. This, although comical, is exactly what Alex de Tocqueville was talking about when he wrote Tyranny of the Majority. His theories and observations are still relevant today present not only in silly TV shows but in governments around the world, especially the United States. Tocqueville starts his argument is that the Constitution of the United States is written to give power to the majority of the population, the majority…

saying has always been majority rules. Whatever the largest sum of people want tends to always win. This idea correlates directly with our government today. Majority tyranny is a bigger threat than minority tyranny to American democracy today because the size and power that majority groups obtain make it easier to gain control or possibly overthrow our government. In federalist paper 10, James Madison talked about the threats that factions pose in our government today. Another example of…

Tocqueville displays the tyranny of the majority as a grave threat to the American democracy, but what does he mean by this? The power of the majority is threatening, as Tocqueville states, “It is of the very essence of democratic governments that the empire of the majority is absolute; for in democracies, outside the majority there is nothing that resists it” (1.2.7.235). The majority is dangerous, in a sense that nothing can overpower the laws and decisions they want to see appear in the…

Board of Education, the ruling was merely a check against the majority to protect the rights of minorities. Majority rule is important in a democracy; yet when the majority infringes on rights of minorities, the power of the majority must be diminished in order for society to maintain justice. In Brown, it was noted that, “The plaintiffs contend that segregated public schools are not ‘equal’ and cannot be made ‘equal’ and that hence they are deprive of the equal protection of the laws” (188). It…

first discusses the relationship between liberty and authority. Mill argues that liberty had a changing role when citizens equated liberty to limitations on government. As a result, civil liberty became associated with political rights, specifically the right to self-government. This new interpretation was celebrated as giving power to the people, with their voices represented in government- popular sovereignty. However, Mill argues that this rise of self-governance was a continuation of the…

Mill and Foucault both use the concept of freedom and liberty in their writings to demonstrate the different power dynamics. Mill has a distinct perspective of social tyranny among a liberal structure. Foucault explains the ways in which we facilitate and enforce power through discourse. While their two views give a different lens of power, I would argue that they give a similar perspective on the ways in which a collective society maintains power. Both Mill and Foucault establish a critical…

flaw built directly into the American political system: an electoral system in which the majority rules and there is no minority representation, because the winner takes all. Except, in the 2016 American presidential election, the majority winner did not win; Trump lost the popular vote to Clinton by over 2.8 million votes. Therefore, the Trump phenomenon is not the end of democracy as we know it, or even the end of the world. The Trump phenomenon is best understood as an “anti-establishment”…

Mill believes that the deprivation of liberty and equality for those in the minority. His accurate criticism is seen in the treatment of women. He believes that majority tyranny suppresses freedom and growth. We see that around the world women are not seen as the majority tranny so their voices are suppressed. Rules, Laws and regulations are created without considering their voices and perspective. When we have a big government, they become over baring and become the majority tyranny. Liberty…

The reconnection of each individual to his moral sense is necessary to combat the effects of majority tyranny, but not sufficient to return American society to a morally upright position. In addition to this moral reconnection, good political leadership that consists of independent men consulting their own sense of morality, rather than the views of the majority, is necessary to overcome the blemish on American history that is…