John Stuart Mills Tyranny of the Majority
John Stuart Mills fears that if no limitations are implemented to the rules of the majority, then there is a possibility that this “freedom” will be exploited and there will come a time when the majority will oppress the minority. Mills fear that someday, the minority will not have any freedom to choose their own religion, language or culture which will eventually stop them from having an identity of their own because the majority will rule over them. Since Mills lived in a world when there is prime distinction between the rich and poor and the poor outnumbers the rich, giving them equal rights is not “acceptable”. He fears that if this is done there will come a time when the majority poor will overrule the minority rich and overthrow them.
Because of these fear, Mills proposed a solution to this. His concept of “tyranny of the majority” is to have a proportional representation and giving extra powers or votes for those educated and rich citizens in the society. This concept of Mill may be advantageous sometimes when a group is overly populated but this does not fully reflect the true meaning of democracy since the rights of other people are suspended. For example, if in a specific congregation, majority are Christians (50%), 25% are Muslims, 15% Protestants and 10% are Buddist. When voting, there is a possibility that the stand of the Christians will automatically win because they have the most number. Using Mills proportional representation, each group can select two (2) representatives and those representatives will be the one to vote. In this way, each group is equally represented or since the Christians have the most number, they can have 3 representatives.
In terms of world democracy, the majority rule has bad and good effects. On the good side, everyone has a right to be represented while on the bad side, groups with higher numbers can overthrow the minority groups. Mills idea could be applicable to the modern society and politics since groups will be proportionally represented, however, this can deprive the rights of individuals to voice out their ideas.
References:
“Majority Rule/Minority Rights: Essential Principles” (2012). DemocracyWeb.org. Retrieved on February 21, 2012 from http://www.democracyweb.org/majority/principles.php
“Unlimited Power of the Majority in the United States and Its Consequences” (2012). Virginia.edu. Retrieved on February 21, 2012 from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/1_ch15.htm
