{"id":3901,"date":"2009-12-27T01:28:42","date_gmt":"2009-12-27T09:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/?p=3901"},"modified":"2009-12-27T01:28:42","modified_gmt":"2009-12-27T09:28:42","slug":"the-tyranny-of-the-majority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/27\/the-tyranny-of-the-majority\/","title":{"rendered":"The tyranny of the majority"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nHong Kong is so behind in the progress of democracy. While we are still asking for basic democracy, the Americans is already dealing with the problem of having too much democracy. I wonder are there any pro-China politicians in HK would smart enough to quote the problems in California as an argument against the pro-democracy movement.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Dec 17th 2009, The Economist print edition
\nThe fourth branch of government has run amok in parts of America<\/p>\n

AS 2009 draws to a close, the voter-initiative industry is already frantically busy. In two dozen states new propositions are being readied to go before voters in 2010. Soon \u201cbounty hunters\u201d, paid by the sponsors, will appear on the streets to gather signatures in order to place initiatives on ballots. In states such as California voters will probably have to consider more than a dozen next year.<\/p>\n

The lofty term for these initiatives, along with referendums and recalls (most famously of Gray Davis, California\u2019s then-governor, in 2003), is \u201cdirect democracy\u201d. They play the biggest and most excessive role in California, where voters have directly amended the state\u2019s constitution or statutes in matters big and small, from how to spend to how to tax, from regulating how fowl should be kept in coops to banning gays from marrying.<\/p>\n

The latter two initiatives happened to pass on the same ballot in 2008. Thus \u201cchickens gained valuable rights in California on the same day that gay men and lesbians lost them,\u201d as Ronald George, the chief justice of California\u2019s Supreme Court, remarked recently. The court had previously ruled gay marriage legal, but was obliged to uphold the voters\u2019 wishes.<\/p>\n

This odd pairing illustrates the problem that direct democracy poses today. First, by circumventing legislatures in the minutiae of governance (chicken coops, for instance), direct democracy overrules, and often undermines, representative democracy. Second, by letting majorities of those voting\u2014who are often a minority of the state\u2019s residents\u2014circumscribe the rights of minorities (gays, in this case), direct democracy can threaten individual freedom.<\/p>\n

Put differently, it is the \u201ctyranny of the majority\u201d that James Madison, a Founding Father, warned about. His reading of ancient history was that the direct democracy of Athens was erratic and short-lived, whereas republican Rome remained stable for much longer. He even worried about using the word \u201cdemocracy\u201d at all, lest citizens confuse its representative (ie, republican) form with its direct one. \u201cDemocracy never lasts long,\u201d wrote John Adams, another Founding Father. Asked what government the federal constitution of 1787 had established, Benjamin Franklin responded: \u201cA republic, if you can keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But republican governance, even with its competing branches of government and elected representatives, did not perform well as America expanded westward. In California, according to a famous account from 1896, there was \u201conly one kind of politics and that was corrupt politics. It didn\u2019t matter whether a man was a Republican or Democrat. The Southern Pacific Railroad controlled both parties.\u201d Enraged, the Progressive movement grew and took a new look at direct democracy as it was practised in Switzerland, where its use was\u2014and is\u2014sparing and effective (even if occasionally controversial, like last month\u2019s vote to ban minarets).<\/p>\n

In 1898 South Dakota became the first state to allow voter initiatives, and others followed, including California in 1911. For many years direct democracy worked as a safety valve, if and when legislatures proved corrupt or unresponsive. But starting with California\u2019s infamous Proposition 13 of 1978, which not only capped property taxes but required (thanks to a vote by a simple majority of those voting) a supermajority of legislators for any future tax increase, direct democracy changed.<\/p>\n

It became a fourth branch of government, an industry and a circus. In the 1980s and 1990s the number of ballot initiatives soared, as tycoons from Silicon Valley and Hollywood, or special interests such as public-sector unions, threw millions of dollars into campaigns, paying college students a dollar or more for each signature they collected, blanketing the airwaves with demagogic attack ads and pestering residents with robo-calls at suppertime. The initiatives became longer\u2014the longest rambled on for 15,633 words\u2014and, with double negatives and impenetrable legalese, less comprehensible.<\/p>\n

Ironically enough, Southern Pacific, now itself just another interest group, bankrolled an initiative in 1990 to issue billions in bonds to support rail transport. Even elected representatives, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, often make use of initiatives nowadays instead of working with the legislature. Mr George wonders whether the voter initiative has now \u201cbecome the tool of the very types of special interests it was intended to control, and an impediment to the effective functioning of a true democratic process.\u201d
\nThe bringer of gridlock<\/p>\n

Direct democracy in this form contributes to dysfunction. California currently has America\u2019s worst budget problems, but other states with extensive direct democracy, such as its neighbours Arizona and Oregon (which has had more initiatives than even California), are close behind. In Oregon it will be voters who decide, in January, for or against a tax increase to help plug the latest budget hole.<\/p>\n

Those budget holes often result from the cumulative consequences of voter initiatives as much as from economic slowdown. Since the 1970s voters have tended to like initiatives that promise better schools, new hospitals or tougher prison terms, but they are oblivious to the costs involved. At the same time, they loathe taxes and in many states they have insisted, by voter initiative, that two-thirds majorities are needed to raise them.<\/p>\n

Robert Stern, the president of the non-partisan Centre for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles (and a drafter of initiatives since the 1970s), believes that direct democracy cannot and should not be ditched wholesale. Despite everything, \u201cmost Californians have more confidence in the initiative process than in the legislative process,\u201d he says. That is a result of increasing polarisation between the two big parties, which has led to blocked and unresponsive legislatures and so bred a yearning to circumvent them.<\/p>\n

But Mr Stern, like Mr George, believes that the process must be improved and supports the idea of a constitutional convention in California for that purpose. There are far too many initiatives because the signature-collection process is trivially easy for those with money (though daunting for those without it). There must be clearer and more accessible information for voters. And in California the legislature should be allowed at least to amend all initiatives, which it currently cannot. Its citizens should remember that they have a republic, if they can keep it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hong Kong is so behind in the progress of democracy. While we are still asking for basic democracy, the Americans is already dealing with the problem of having too much democracy. I wonder are there any pro-China politicians in HK would smart enough to quote the problems in California as an argument against the pro-democracy … Continue reading The tyranny of the majority<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"lc_iscn_info":[],"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[41,153],"class_list":["post-3901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-_newsclips","tag-economist","tag-democracy"],"yoast_head":"\nThe tyranny of the majority - \u54f2\u5b50\u6232 Philosophist\u2019s Camp<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hong Kong is so behind in the progress of democracy. 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There is not true\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Scribble"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Scribble","link":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/category\/_scribble\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2631,"url":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/2009\/04\/18\/religion-human-rights-and-the-meaning-of-freedom\/","url_meta":{"origin":3901,"position":2},"title":"Religion, human rights and the meaning of freedom","author":"hevangel","date":"April 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Defaming is to falsely accuse against something, but religion matters can not be proved true or false.\u00a0 Therefore, in theory no one can defame religions.\u00a0 Moreover, it is our basic human rights to criticize some stupid or evil religions. Apr 2nd 2009 From The Economist print edition Why freedom of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News Clips"","block_context":{"text":"News Clips","link":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/category\/_reference\/_newsclips\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2079,"url":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/07\/california-proposition-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":3901,"position":3},"title":"California Proposition 2","author":"hevangel","date":"November 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In the US election, the voters not only vote for the president. They also vote for many other things. In some states, they vote for senators, in other states, they have referendum on new legislation. In California, proposition 8 snatch many headlines. Over half of the voters made the right\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Scribble"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Scribble","link":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/category\/_scribble\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3231,"url":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/15\/irans-debate-over-theocracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":3901,"position":4},"title":"Iran’s debate over theocracy","author":"hevangel","date":"July 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Theocracy equals to dictatorship. Maybe the Christians in Hong Kong who lust for moral authority over the mass public should learn the lesson from Iran. Jun 25th 2009 - Economist Why the turbans are at odds A debate rages about the nature of clerical rule THE Koran is the word\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News Clips"","block_context":{"text":"News Clips","link":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/category\/_reference\/_newsclips\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":548,"url":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/02\/income-trust\/","url_meta":{"origin":3901,"position":5},"title":"Income trust","author":"hevangel","date":"November 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the biggest news in Canada is the financial minster change the law on income trust.? This costs a collapse in the Toronto stock exchange and the market lost 3% in one day.? The advantage for a company change to income trust is mostly tax benefit.? As an income\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Daily Scribble"","block_context":{"text":"Daily Scribble","link":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/category\/_scribble\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3902,"href":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3901\/revisions\/3902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horace.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}