Democracy Matters: Majority Rule, Minority Rights (Feb 08)

This entry in a continuing series called “Democracy Matters” examines the core characteristics that make up real democracies, including the notion that democracies rest upon fundamental principles rather than uniform practices.

Core Democratic Characteristics

Democracy is more than just a set of specific government institutions; it rests upon a well-understood group of values, attitudes, and practices — all of which may take different forms and expressions among cultures and societies around the world.

• Democracy is government in which power and civic responsibility are exercised by all adult citizens, directly, or through their freely elected representatives.
  
• Democracy rests upon the principles of majority rule and individual rights. Democracies guard against all-powerful central governments and decentralize government to regional and local levels, understanding that all levels of government must be as accessible and responsive to the people as possible.
  
• Democracies understand that one of their prime functions is to protect such basic human rights as freedom of speech and religion; the right to equal protection under law; and the opportunity to organize and participate fully in the political, economic, and cultural life of society.
  
• Democracies conduct regular free and fair elections open to citizens of voting age.
  
• Citizens in a democracy have not only rights, but also the responsibility to participate in the political system that, in turn, protects their rights and freedoms.
  

Democratic societies are committed to the values of tolerance, cooperation, and compromise. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.”

Majority Rule and Minority Rights

All democracies are systems in which citizens freely make political decisions by majority rule. In the words of American essayist E.B. White: “Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half the people are right more than half the time.”

But majority rule, by itself, is not automatically democratic. No one, for example, would call a system fair or just that permitted 51 percent of the population to oppress the remaining 49 percent in the name of the majority.

In a democratic society, majority rule must be coupled with guarantees of individual human rights that, in turn, serve to protect the rights of minorities and dissenters — whether ethnic, religious, or simply the losers in political debate. The rights of minorities do not depend upon the good will of the majority and cannot be eliminated by majority vote. The rights of minorities are protected because democratic laws and institutions protect the rights of all citizens.

Minorities need to trust the government to protect their rights and safety. Once this is accomplished, such groups can participate in, and contribute to their country’s democratic institutions. The principle of majority rule and minority rights characterizes all modern democracies, no matter how varied in history, culture, population, and economy.

From “Democracy in Brief,” by the Bureau of International Information Programs,
U.S. Department of State, http://usinfo.state.gov