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Chapter 2 the people. James Madison articulated similar views at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. Madison argued that the best defence against majoritarianism is a network of checks and balances that would make government responsive to competing minorities and safeguard the propertied few from the propertyless masses.
KEY FIGURE
JAMES MADISON (1751–1836) A US statesman and political theorist, Madison played a major role in writing the US Constitution and served as the fourth president of the USA (1809–17). Madison was a leading proponent of pluralism and divided government, urging the adoption of federalism, bicameralism and the separation of powers as the basis of US government. Madisonianism thus implies a strong emphasis on checks and balances as the principal means of resisting tyranny. His best-known political writings are his contributions to The Federalist (1787–8).
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KEY CONCEPT LIBERAL DEMOCRACY
constitution, institutional checks and balances, and protections for individual rights; and (3) a vigorous civil society including a private enterprise economy, independent trade unions and a free press. While liberals view liberal democracy as being universally applicable, on the grounds that it allows for the expression of the widest possible range of views and beliefs, critics regard it as the political expression of either Western values or capitalist economic structures.
A liberal democracy is a political regime in which a ‘liberal’ commitment to limited government is blended with a ‘democratic’ belief in popular rule. Its key features are: (1) the right to rule is gained through success in regular and competitive elections based on universal adult suffrage; (2) constraints on government imposed by a
Liberals have expressed particular reservations about democracy, not merely because of the danger of majority rule, but also because of the make-up of the majority in modern, industrial societies. As far as J. S. Mill was concerned, for instance, political wisdom is unequally distributed and is largely related to education. The uneducated are more likely to act according to narrow class interests, whereas the educated are able to use their wisdom and experience for the good of others. He therefore insisted that elected politicians should speak for themselves rather than reflect the views of their electors, and he proposed a system of plural voting that would disenfranchise the illiterate and allocate one, two, three or four votes to people depending on their level of education
or social position. Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955), the Spanish social thinker, expressed such fears more dramatically in The Revolt of the Masses ([1930] 1972). Gasset warned that the arrival of mass democracy had led to the overthrow of civilized society and the moral order, paving the way for authoritarian rulers to come to power by appealing to the basest instincts of the masses. By the twentieth century, however, a large proportion of liberals had come to see democracy as a virtue, though this was based on a number of arguments and doctrines. The earliest liberal justification for democracy was founded on consent , and the idea that citizens must have a means
Majoritarianism: A belief in majority rule;
majoritarianism implies either that the majority dominates the minority, or that the minority should defer to the judgement of the majority. Consent: Assent or permission; in politics, usually an agreement to be governed or ruled.
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