Eric Whitlock

Mr. Lundstrom
HELA 10H Period 6
January 6 2016
Tyranny of the Majority
It does not prove a thing to be right because the majority says it is so,- Friedrich Schiller. In
many modern government types, they use a majority rules system which dictates what happens in the
country by vote of majority. This is an effective government type because without it downsides to this
because just because even though the majority may choose a decision it may everybody would be
fighting and the world would be in total anarchy. However, there are not be the right one or the one that
will help more people. This leads to many people being on the fence about this subject on whether a
majority rule system of government is good or not. Even with this a majority rule system of government is
effective but has some downsides of not going for the right decisions on some topics.
To start a majority government is effective because it solves problems that would not be solved
without a majority. Without a majority rule system, we would try to please everybody like the government
system Poland had called the liberum veto which had it so if one person disagreed with the vote they
would just cancel it out. Likewise, this relates to something Bill Cosby once said, I dont know the key to
success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. But even though the majority rule type of
government has been shown in history to be the most effective it still has some problems. One of the
biggest problems is that the truth seems to be hidden into the majority in the government.
Secondly a majority government problems arise when opinions become illogical and hurt the
government or other things in the country. Sometimes it is not intentional to to make these illogical
decisions because they may not know enough about the topic the group they are in view it in that way so
they take what the majority says instead of what they thing. This relates to what John Stuart Mill said,
There needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling. This will bring
problems because in the end a lot of bad mistakes will be made that could ruin the environment or affect
citizens lives. A solution to try and help this problem with the majority rules system is to make the
viewpoints be explained and then they can all be able to make an accurate vote of what would be best for
the government instead of using their beliefs and opinions to make a vote. This still will cause some
conflict between opinions about what is right for the government but maybe it will erase some confusion
between the groups.
Some people may think that a minority rule type of government would be more effective because
it will have it so everybody has the right to do what they believe and have total freedom of their lives.
However, this type of government could not work out in the end. What if a minority of people thought that
murder was not bad and made laws to make murder legal? With the idea of a majority choosing the
choices of the government makes to so that the minority does not mess up our society. This relates to
what William McKinley said, The tyranny of the minority is infinitely more odious and intolerable and more
to be feared than that of the majority. This being said a minority cannot provide what is right for the
majority due to a lot more differing beliefs and opinions to make people mad which will lead to chaos.
Finally, in the end even though a majority rules type government has its flaws it is the most
effective government any modern day society can have. The reasons behind this is that governments
have tried to make things equal before like Poland but they failed and became a mess because of it. The
majority rules system works because a least a chunk of the population is satisfied with the results even if
they are not the best. But even if a minority rules group could work would you like the government to have
a system like that which could help damage the country?