The concept of the "tyranny of the majority" is a critical one for understanding the challenges and limitations of democracy. It refers to a situation in which the majority of an electorate pursues exclusively its own objectives at the expense of those of the minority factions. This results in the oppression of minority groups and the erosion of their rights and liberties.
While the term "tyranny of the majority" itself was coined by 19th century philosophers like Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill, the underlying problem has been recognized since ancient times. The trial and execution of Socrates in ancient Athens, based on the votes of hundreds of Athenian jurors, demonstrated how a majority could unjustly overrule reason and individual liberty.
The Threat of the Majority in the Age of Revolutions
However, it was in the 17th-19th centuries, as demands for democracy and popular sovereignty grew louder, that concerns about the dangers of majority rule truly came to the fore. The English Civil War and Glorious Revolution in the 17th century raised the specter of the masses rising up against traditional elites. John Locke, in his seminal Two Treatises of Government (1690), sought to balance the will of the majority with the need to preserve individual rights.
A century later, the American and French Revolutions ushered in a truly revolutionary age of democracy. But the bloody excesses of the French Revolution, in which the will of the revolutionary masses led to the Reign of Terror, underscored the dangers of unrestrained majority rule. On the other side of the Atlantic, James Madison and other framers of the U.S. Constitution grappled with how to create a stable republican government that could withstand the destabilizing passions of factional majorities.
It was in this context that Alexis de Tocqueville, a French diplomat and political scientist, made his famous observations about the "tyranny of the majority" in his landmark work Democracy in America (1835/1840). Based on his travels in the young United States, Tocqueville admired many aspects of American democracy. But he also warned of the "omnipotence of the majority" and its ability to impose its will on dissenting minorities through both formal, legal means and informal social pressure.
As Tocqueville wrote, "The majority has absolute power both to make the law and to watch over its execution; and as it has equal authority over those who make the laws and over those who execute them, it may be said absolutely to govern society." He worried that the majority could use this power to "deprive its opponents of their civil rights and from their political ones by declaring them unworthy to hold them."[^1]
[^1]: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. Henry Reeve, vol. 2, 4th ed. (Cambridge: Sever and Francis, 1864), 305-6.British philosopher John Stuart Mill built on these ideas in his famous essay On Liberty (1859). He argued that democracy‘s "tyrannical majority" could impose a "despotism of society over the individual" not just through laws and government action but through social pressure and the "tyranny of opinion."[^2] Like Tocqueville, Mill feared that majority opinion would stifle freedom of thought, creativity, and individual flourishing.
[^2]: John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, ed. David Bromwich and George Kateb (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 76.Tyranny of the White Majority in US History
Sadly, the U.S. Constitution‘s system of checks and balances, separation of powers, and federalism failed to prevent tyranny of the majority in many cases. The most glaring example was the treatment of African Americans, who were enslaved and then subjected to discriminatory Jim Crow laws and segregation for a century after emancipation. As political scientists Robert A. Dahl and Edward R. Tufte have noted, "Perhaps the most extreme case of a ‘tyranny of the majority‘ in American experience has been the treatment of the Negro minority."[^3] [^3]: Robert A. Dahl and Edward R. Tufte, Size and Democracy (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1973), 14.
Other minority groups have also suffered under the yoke of a white majority demanding conformity to its cultural, religious, and linguistic norms. Native Americans were forcibly removed from their lands, denied citizenship, and pressured to assimilate in order to please the Euro-American majority. In the name of national security and responding to popular anti-Asian prejudice, over 110,000 Japanese Americans were detained in internment camps during World War II, despite no evidence of disloyalty.
Majority Tyranny Around the World
The problem of "tyranny of the majority" is not unique to the United States. Political theorist Hannah Arendt, writing in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the rise of totalitarianism in Europe, warned that the masses could be just as dangerous to liberty as monarchs or dictators. In Arendt‘s view, the broad popular enthusiasm for Hitler in Nazi Germany demonstrated how a majority could democratically support the destruction of a minority group.[^4] [^4]: Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1951), 232.
Other examples abound. In Northern Ireland, the Catholic minority faced systematic discrimination in voting, housing, and employment at the hands of the Protestant majority. The Turkish government and majority have long oppressed Kurdish minorities demanding cultural and political rights. Across the Arab world, non-Muslim minorities like the Christian Copts in Egypt and Yazidis in Iraq have faced hostility and pressure to conform from the Muslim majority.
According to the human rights group Minority Rights Group International, "Minorities remain under threat and their rights are often violated in both authoritarian states and democracies."[^5] Their data shows that ethnic minorities make up over 70% of the world‘s stateless populations and face disproportionate poverty, social exclusion, and lack of access to justice.
[^5]: Minority Rights Group International, "Peoples Under Threat 2022," World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, June 2022, https://minorityrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Peoples-under-Threat-briefing-2022.pdf21st Century Concerns: Populism and Polarization
In the 21st century, concerns about the tyranny of the majority have taken on new relevance with the global rise of populist movements and leaders. Populists often claim to represent the "true will" of the majority against corrupt minority elites. But in practice, populist leaders like Hungary‘s Viktor Orban, Brazil‘s Jair Bolsonaro, and others have demonstrated authoritarian tendencies, undermining democratic checks and balances and marginalizing minority opponents and vulnerable minority groups.
The deepening of partisan polarization, especially in mature democracies like the United States, has heightened fears of a tyrannical majority running roughshod over minority rights. Political scientists have documented the poisonous effects of "negative partisanship" or "toxic polarization," in which politics becomes defined by mutual hostility more than substantive issues. In this "us vs. them" environment, a majority party may feel empowered to disenfranchise or discriminate against their partisan rivals.[^6] [^6]: Rachel Blum and Christopher Sebastian Parker, "Trump-ing Foreign Affairs: Status Threat and Foreign Policy Preferences on the Right," Perspectives on Politics 17, no. 3 (2019): 737–55, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592718003365.
Sustaining Liberal Democracy: Structural and Cultural Remedies
What can we learn from this history to better protect against the tyranny of the majority in the 21st century?
Many of the traditional structural solutions proposed by Madison, Mill, Tocqueville and others remain vital: strong protections for individual rights enshrined in a constitution, separation of powers, an independent judiciary, and decentralized federalism that prevents a national majority from imposing its will on dissenting local majorities. Proportional representation and protections for minority parties in legislatures can ensure that a majority faction cannot completely dominate.
However, the cultural and psychological dimensions may be just as important. Building a strong civic culture that values pluralism, individual liberty, and healthy dialogue across group lines is essential. As political theorist Russell Muirhead argues, "The real antidote to majoritarian tyranny is not better procedures but better democrats, citizens who appreciate the difference between what James Madison called ‘the cool and deliberate sense of the community‘ and the ‘mischiefs of faction.‘"[^7] [^7]: Russell Muirhead, "The Future of Democracy‘s Citadel," Noema Magazine, January 13, 2022, https://www.noemamag.com/the-future-of-democracys-citadel/
Instilling these democratic values requires continuous civic education, a diverse but constructive media and online environment, and grassroots efforts to build understanding across partisan, ethnic, religious, and cultural lines. Minority groups themselves must actively participate in democratic governance and civil society while asserting their equal rights and humanity.
Democracy, in the end, is an act of humility, in which the winning majority recognizes the basic political equality of minorities, and the losing minority accepts the legitimacy of the majority‘s victory. This humility is always a work in progress, never guaranteed. But by learning from the struggles of the past and present against the tyranny of the majority, we can do the hard work to sustain an open society of free and equal citizens.
