MATRIC NO: U2222752G
TUTORIAL CLASS: T79
QUESTION: The ‘tyranny of majority’ is not necessarily a bad thing because the (numerical)
minority conforms out of choice. Argue for OR against this contention.
MAIN ARGUMENT: Tyranny of the Majority is necessarily a bad thing.
Tyranny of the majority is a term first used by Alexis de Tocqueville. How this is defined is
that even in a democratic society, the majority if given the opportunity would still infringe
on the rights of the minority. For example, people often vote for people that support their
individual ideals, and since the person with majority of votes would be declared the
leader, he would most likely have the ideals of the majority. In order to keep his position,
he would then have to appeal to the majority to keep their votes, and this would then
lead to the minority being ignored.(1) Which then leads to the minority conforming, but in
my opinion, it is not out of choice. One example from our history would be gay rights.
Homosexuality has existed since millenniums ago, the first documented gay rights
organisation in the US was founded in 1924.(2) Instead of recognising homosexuals and
respecting their choices, they were discriminated. In 1952, the American Psychiatric
Association listed homosexuality as a mental disorder, following that, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower, banned them from federal jobs and gay people in New York would not be
served drinks at a bar or would be kicked out as the authorities considered gatherings of
gays to be “disorderly”.(2) An example of gays conforming because they are forced to is in
1992 where President Bill Clinton allowed for homosexuals to serve in the military
provided, they do not declare their sexuality and by the time this policy was abolished
more then 12000 officers was discharged(2), showing that the homosexuals as the
minority has to conform or they would lose their jobs, and conforming was not a choice.
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REBUTTAL:
One could argue that members of the majority does not always act in harmful ways and in
fact many positive reforms of laws are spearheaded by members of the majority. Example
of this would be slavery. Many of the early leaders and supporters of the abolishment
movement were white religious individuals. Notable individuals include William Lloyd
Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe and even President Abraham Lincoln.(3)(4)(5) In fact,
President Lincoln outlawed slavery in America. Therefore, tyranny of the majority is not
always bad as they can act in goodwill of the minority.
COUNTER-ARGUMENT:
However, this does not change that, the abolishment of slavery only happened because
some members of the majority felt that change was needed. The narrative could have
easily been the opposite and slavery would have continued. Even long after the
abolishment movement, racism continued to exist, President Lincoln was assassinated by
someone who supported the Confederates(6), many pro-white groups were established
like the KKK, Jim Crow laws existed way after slavery(7) and even today there are well
documented cases of racism(8).
Minorites in the past did not choose to be slaves, but they were silenced, ignored and
their opinions did not matter to the majority until someone from the majority
sympathised with them. If tyranny of the majority did not exist, maybe slavery would not
have even existed
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POSTER CITATIONS:
(1) (Dahl, 1998)
(2)(Editors, Abolishment Movement, 2019)
(3) (Editors, History, 2017)
(4)(Editors, Slavery in America, 2009)
(5) (Society, 2022)
(6) (Norton, 1996)
(7) (Pilgrim, 2000)
(8) (Solly, 2020)
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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Bibliography
Dahl, R. A. (1998, july 20). Democracy. Retrieved from britannica:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/democracy/Factions-and-parties#ref796551
Editors, H. (2009, November 12). Slavery in America. Retrieved from History.
Editors, H. (2017, June 28). Retrieved from History: https://www.history.com/topics/gayrights/history-of-gay-rights
Editors, H. (2019, November 29). Abolishment Movement. Retrieved from History:
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/abolitionist-movement
Norton, R. J. (1996, December 29). Abraham Lincoln's Assasination. Retrieved from Roger J.
Norton: https://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln72.html
Pilgrim, D. D. (2000, Sept). What was Jim Crow. Retrieved from Ferris State University:
https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/what.htm
Society, N. G. (2022, May 19). Retrieved from National Geographic:
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/abolition-and-abolitionists
Solly, M. (2020, June 4). 158 Resources to Understand Racism in America. Retrieved from
Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/158-resourcesunderstanding-systemic-racism-america-180975029/
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