Evening star., 1937-08-25
Flaws in Majority Rule
Vigilance Held Needed by Government to Protect
Rights of Minorities and individuals.

is invested with certain natural rights,
which not even majority Of 90 per
cent can divest him Of
From the founding Of this Republic
until the twentieth century and until
the present time, this thesis has been
accepted by all American statesmen,
including those Of the left, and those
OF the right. In his Roanoke Island
speech the President-by the strongest
inference-claimed Thomas Jefferson
as the advocate Of unchecked majority
rule. But these words are JefIerson's:
The will OF the majority Is in all
cases to prevail, but that will, to be
rightful, must be reasonable; the
minority possess equal rights, which
equal laws must protect, and to
violate which would be oppression.
And Jefferson plainly saw that un-
checked majority rule, and the con-
centration Of power in the hands Of
the Executive with or without the
support Of the majority, would amount
to despotism. He said so:
All the powers OF government
legislative, executive and judiciary
result in the legislative body.
The concentrating Of these In the
same hands is precisely the defini-
ton Of despotic government. It
will be no alleviation that these
powers will be exercised by a plu-
rality Of hands. and not by a single
one.
Attacked by Madison.
Nowhere has the doctrine that I'M
checked majority rule is democracy
been more brilliantly or convincingly
attacked than by James Madison. "the
father OF the Constitution" who took
up this whole fallacy at length In the
tenth paper OF The Federalist."
Complaints are everywhere heard
:. that the public good is disre-
garded in the conflicts of rival
parties and that measures are too
often decided, not according to the
rules OF justice and the rights of
the minor party, but by the superior
force Of an interested and over
bearing majority.
A factious spirit has tainted
our public administrations. BY a
faction l mean 4 number OF citi-
zens, whether amounting to a ma
jority or minority OF the whole, who
are united and actuated by some
common impulse or passion or OF
interest adverse to the permanent
and aggregate interests of the COM
munity. -.
1t Is vain to say that en-
lightened statesmen would be able
to adjust clashing interests
and render them all subservient
to the public good Enlightened
statesmen will not always be at
the helm . When q majority
is included in q faction, the form
OF popular government en-
ables 1t to sacrifice to its ruling
passion or interest, both the pub
lie good and the welfare of other
citizens. To secure the public good
against the danger OF such a fac
ton, and, at the same time to pre-
serve the spirit and form Of popu-
lar government. is the great
object to which our inquiries are
directed.
A pure democracy can
admit Of no cure for the mischiefs
OF faction. A common passion or
interest will, in almost every case,
be felt by majorityof the whole;
a communication and a concert
result from the form OF govern
ment itself; and there is nothing
to check the inducements to sac
rifice the weaker party or an OBJ
noxious individual Hence it is that
such democracies have ever been
spectacles Of turbulence and con-
tention; have ever been found in