Should majorities decide everything?
That's the question dealt by Duke University Professor Mike Munger in the following video at the LearnLiberty.org (thanks to Tim Hedberg for the video)
A synopsis from LearnLiberty.org
It is important to note that the lessons from the above doesn't apply just to the US but has been universal through modern political institutions. For instance, Europe's unfolding crisis has substantially been influenced by the rule of the majority channeled through the populist welfare state.
In the Philippines, such dynamic has been evident through Pork Barrel "personality" based politics.
Yet all one has to do is to look at how media and politicians shapes public opinion. Even trivial events have been sensationalized to bring about political importance. Events are always projected to appeal to the majority's emotions subtly intended to mold and manipulate the public's sense of social morality e.g. collectivism via "selfless" nationalism "para sa bayan", which have been and will be used as basis for legal mandates premised on the rule of the majority.
The tyranny of the majority as the great Professor Ludwig von Mises warned, (Theory and History p. 66-67)
Importantly, the tyranny of the majority is just but one phase of the harsh political reality. Democratic politics has largely been about the rule of the political minority who uses and manipulates the majority as an instrument to acquire their self interested goals.
So democracy is essentially an illusion where the majority rules but through the palms of the privileged politically mandated minority.
That's the question dealt by Duke University Professor Mike Munger in the following video at the LearnLiberty.org (thanks to Tim Hedberg for the video)
A synopsis from LearnLiberty.org
Under a democratic system of government, how is an individual protected from the tyranny of the majority? According to Professor Munger, democratic constitutions consist of two parts: one defining the limits within which decisions can be made democratically, and the other establishing the process by which decisions will be made. In the United States Constitution, the individual is protected from majority decisions. Professor Munger warns, however, that these protections are slowly being stripped away as American courts of law fail to recognize the limits of what can be decided by majority rule. Professor Munger uses the case of Kelo v. New London to illustrate the dangers of confusing majority rule with a democratic system.
It is important to note that the lessons from the above doesn't apply just to the US but has been universal through modern political institutions. For instance, Europe's unfolding crisis has substantially been influenced by the rule of the majority channeled through the populist welfare state.
In the Philippines, such dynamic has been evident through Pork Barrel "personality" based politics.
Yet all one has to do is to look at how media and politicians shapes public opinion. Even trivial events have been sensationalized to bring about political importance. Events are always projected to appeal to the majority's emotions subtly intended to mold and manipulate the public's sense of social morality e.g. collectivism via "selfless" nationalism "para sa bayan", which have been and will be used as basis for legal mandates premised on the rule of the majority.
The tyranny of the majority as the great Professor Ludwig von Mises warned, (Theory and History p. 66-67)
If public opinion is ultimately responsible for the structure of government, it is also the agency that determines whether there is freedom or bondage. There is virtually only one factor that has the power to make people unfree—tyrannical public opinion. The struggle for freedom is ultimately not resistance to autocrats or oligarchs but resistance to the despotism of public opinion. It is not the struggle of the many against the few but of minorities—sometimes of a minority of but one man—against the majority. The worst and most dangerous form of absolutist rule is that of an intolerant majorityIn short, the ethical tenet embraced by democratic politics has been "Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote". People essentially lose their "rationality" when they become overwhelmed by Groupthink dynamics applied to politics.
Importantly, the tyranny of the majority is just but one phase of the harsh political reality. Democratic politics has largely been about the rule of the political minority who uses and manipulates the majority as an instrument to acquire their self interested goals.
So democracy is essentially an illusion where the majority rules but through the palms of the privileged politically mandated minority.
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