Tyranny of the Majority

Those who supported the repeal of Maine’s same-sex marriage bill have made many references to “majority rules” over the past few days. This tyranny of a majority was a concern of the founding fathers of the United States. James Madison (writing to Thomas Jefferson) asked: when “a majority, united by a common interest or a passion, cannot be constrained from oppressing the minority, what remedy can be found?”

These and other concerns led to the separation of powers built into the US Constitution and to the Bill of Rights which protects individual freedoms. These rights cannot be amended by a mere majority; an amendment to the Constitution must be ratified by three quarters of the states.

John Stuart Mill wrote in his essay, On Liberty, published in 1859:

“Society can and does execute its own mandates; and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself.”

Today we face a social tyranny of the majority which has manifested itself in the political oppression of a minority.