Tyranny of the Majority

Overview

Tyranny of the majority is a concern in majority rule systems that the majority will act in their own interest at the expense of a minority.

Sometimes the term Tyranny is defined as actions that are unreasonably cruel or oppressive.

Is it a problem

Maybe, but what is the alternative? All governance systems are created by humans and if rules are not made by the majority then they are made by a minority, which creates concentrated power, whether it be founders, a military junta, or an elite group in society.

The larger the community the less chance selfish groups will be able control decisions and wider social morality will present itself. Direct Democracy has never been enacted on a large scale community, that is the goal of The Izara Project.

Ways to mitigate

If Tyranny of the majority means a minority is simply negatively affected, that is not a concern, because all governance decision negatively affect some minority, otherwise no decision would need to be voted on because everyone would already be acting that way.

However if we add 'unreasonably cruel or oppressive' to the definition, this could be mitigated similar to modern democracies, for example having a constitution and constitutional court.

Requiring a super-majority for certain actions, for example overturning a decision of a constitutional court could also be used to ensure the concentration of power given to the constitutional court is not abused.