Majoritarian democracy is a form of
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose g ...
based upon
majority rule
Majority rule is a principle that means the decision-making power belongs to the group that has the most members. In politics, majority rule requires the deciding vote to have majority, that is, more than half the votes. It is the binary deci ...
of a polity's citizens.
Majoritarian democracy contrasts with
consensus democracy, rule by as many people as possible.
Characteristics
In the majoritarian vision of democracy, voters mandate successfully-elected politicians to enact the policies they proposed during their electoral campaign. Elections are the focal point of political engagement, with limited ability for the people to influence policymaking between elections.
Criticisms
Though common, majoritarian democracy is not universally accepted – majoritarian democracy is criticized as having the inherent danger of becoming a "
tyranny of the majority" whereby the majority in society could oppress or exclude minority groups,
which can lead to violence and civil war.
Some argue that since parliament, statutes and preparatory works are very important in majoritarian democracies, and considering the absence of a tradition to exercise judicial review at the national level, majoritarian democracies are undemocratic.
Fascism rejects majoritarian democracy because the latter assumes equality of citizens and fascists claim that fascism is a form of
authoritarian democracy that represents the views of a dynamic organized minority of a nation rather than the disorganized majority.
Examples
Australia and Canada are examples of majoritarian democracies. Representatives are chosen not by
proportional electoral systems, but by a system based on
plurality voting
Plurality voting refers to electoral systems in which a candidate, or candidates, who poll more than any other counterpart (that is, receive a plurality), are elected. In systems based on single-member districts, it elects just one member per ...
. Contrary to popular belief, the USA is not a majoritarian democracy as they can have an elected individual based on points from the majority of county and further state votes. This means an individual can be in power in the USA while having a minority vote overall.
See also
*
Majoritarianism
Majoritarianism is a traditional political philosophy or agenda that asserts that a majority (sometimes categorized by religion, language, social class, or some other identifying factor) of the population is entitled to a certain degree of p ...
*
Majority rule
Majority rule is a principle that means the decision-making power belongs to the group that has the most members. In politics, majority rule requires the deciding vote to have majority, that is, more than half the votes. It is the binary deci ...
*
Consensus democracy
References
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Comparative politics
Types of democracy
de:Konkurrenzdemokratie