Political theorists proposed structures to remedy ‘the tyranny of the majority’Īs far as Tocqueville could see, there were no clear barriers against the absolute sovereignty of the majority, but precautions should nevertheless be pursued. He was concerned about the potential abandonment of rationality if a claim to rule is based upon numbers, and “not upon rightness or excellence”. Tocqueville lamented this new form of “democratic despotism”. Tocqueville drew attention to this scenario, wherein “politically speaking, the people have a right to do anything”.Īlternatively, the majority might exercise moral or social tyranny through the power of public opinion and custom. Firstly, tyranny that operates through the formal procedures of government. Two distinct types of majority tyrannyĭemocracies were thought vulnerable to majority tyranny in two distinct forms. The main danger that worried these thinkers, along with many others from classical philosopher Aristotle to American founding father Madison, was that the majority poor citizenry would vote for confiscatory legislation at the expense of the rich minority.
Alexis de Tocqueville, portrait by Théodore Chassériau (1850) ( Public Domain)
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