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However, The Sense Of Oppression From The Force Of Majority Rule Is Evident ...

However, the sense of oppression from the force of majority rule is evident in many of the written commentaries concerning Athenian democracy. The phrase is a modern one, made popular in the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville as he examined the United States in the context of America as a latter day democratic experiment in the early nineteenth century.
There are a number of striking societal parallels between the democracy of fourth century BCE Athens and that which operated in the United States in 1835. In each state, democracy was a relatively new institution in a world where various types of oligarchic rule was the norm. In both ancient Athens and modern America the vote was extended to male citizens, with exclusions of women, slaves, and foreign persons. It is for this reason that de Tocqueville's observations concerning the ‘tyranny of the majority' represent a helpful illumination of the present question. De Tocqueville wrote that
‘In my opinion the main evil of the present democratic institutions of the United States does not arise from their weakness, but from their overpowering strength; and I am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country as at the very inadequate securities which exist against tyranny. If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be attributed to the unlimited power of the majority. I know of no country where there prevails, in general, less independence of mind and less true freedom of discussion than in
America' (De Tocqueville, 1835, 235)
This proposition echoes the fears of the Athenian opponents to true democracy. Just as the minority landowners in Athens were by law subject to the will of the demos and its broader constituency, de Tocqueville assumed that if liberty were permitted to run unchecked, tyranny would be inevitable.
As noted above, while there are numerous examples of excesses perpetrated by the demos that may be regarded as excessive use of majority will, serious abuses were few (Finley, 1962, 3, 12, 24). Aristotle noted the rigor with which membership in the Council and other positions of authority was determined. (Ath. Pol. 1317b) The combined effect of presidential positions being determined by lot, the restriction of Council membership to men over 30 years of age, and the term limits all combined to generate a flow of persons through the important Athenian offices that logically countered the dangers of a majority coalescing around an individual or an office. Blackwell calculated that in the Athenian eligible population, 10,000 Athenians would be needed to hold office over a 30 year period, a remarkably broad based governmental institution. (Blackwell, 2003, 24)
One may conclude that ‘tyranny of the majority' played a limited role in the advance of Athenian democracy.


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