What is meant by tyranny of the majority?
Definition of tyranny of the majority : a situation in which a group of people are treated unfairly because their situation is different from the situation of most of the people in a democratic country.
How did the Bill of Rights limit majority rule?
Senators, who speak for their entire state in the Senate, were originally appointed by state legislatures, not elected. Since Senate approval is required for a federal law to be passed, this limited the people’s say in federal legislation, and thus was a limit on majority rule.
Why is democracy not considered simply a rule of majority?
Democracy is not simply the rule of majority because in democracy it is considered that the views of the minority are not dominated by the majority. In democratic set-up, the majority always needs to work with the minority, so that governments represent the general view.
What is the problem of the tyranny of the majority?
The tyranny of the majority (or tyranny of the masses) is an inherent weakness to majority rule in which the majority of an electorate pursues exclusively its own objectives at the expense of those of the minority factions.
Is democracy rule of the majority?
Majoritarian democracy, as opposed to constitutional democracy, refers to democracy based upon majority rule of a society’s citizens. Majoritarian democracy is the conventional form of democracy used as a political system in many countries.
What is political tyranny?
A tyrant (from Ancient Greek τύραννος, tyrannos), in the modern English usage of the word, is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler’s sovereignty. One can apply accusations of tyranny to a variety of types of government: to government by one individual (in an autocracy)
How can minority rights be protected?
Democracy Requires Minority Rights In the United States, individual liberties, as well as the rights of groups and individual states, are protected through the Bill of Rights, which were drafted by James Madison and adopted as the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution.