edges of democracy

Consider a community of 200 citizens.

If they do not agree to some form of oligarchy, which is rule by minority, such as a monarchy, or a council, they may choose some form of democracy.

Which is rule by majority.

They may decide that murder is a crime, and propose to vote on a “law” that specifies that a person convicted of murder will be removed from society.

Imagine the vote is counted and 197 citizens voted yes, and 3 voted no. The law is enacted.

Note that everyone voted and every vote was counted.

That was the process for making legal decisions, the majority ruled. They all agreed to that process. EVERY citizen was properly, reliably and accurately represented in that democratic process.

Three people were NOT represented by the decision that resulted from that decision process, that democracy.

Please note that there is a distinct difference between “represented within the decision” and “represented by the decision”. In the example, every citizen voted. Every citizen was represented within the decision. What if some citizens did not vote?

It may be easy to wonder why 3 people would vote against that law. Perhaps they agreed with the general idea of murder being a crime, and 2 of them wanted the act of murder defined, and one wanted the manner of removal on conviction specified.

Consider that while voicing their opinions on the matter did not prevent the enactment of the law, that minority opinion did incite the majority to agree that a definition of murder and specification of removal are required to properly enforce that law.

The next week, several proposals are advanced and a final “bill” is written that specifies the manner of removal and the definition of the criminal act.

The community votes and the final count is 150 yes to enact, with 25 dissenting no to enact.

Note that not everyone voted. However, those that did vote were accurately represented by the decision process, though 50 citizens were not represented by the result of using democracy as the decision process.

That is twice that we note the difference between being represented within the decision process and being represented by the result of using that process.

Some time later, there is a proposal to replace the wooden sidewalk with a concrete sidewalk. The vote count is 97 to 34. The “bill” that attempted to replace the sidewalk failed to be enacted.

We might discuss why 97 votes did not count as a majority, only 34 voted no. 97 is obviously larger than 34.

Consider a citizen that owned property. Three of his neighbors envy his property and desire to take it from the citizen and split it evenly between themselves. They take a vote. The result of that vote is three to one.

Any person of reason, would insist that the entire community should have an opportunity to be involved in that decision process. Otherwise, any gang of evil minded people could destroy the community altogether.

Note that three yes votes is nowhere near a majority of 200.

That is why 97 votes for the sidewalk did not enact the law that would have authorized the replacement.

Because 97 is not a majority of 200. A majority of 200 would be a minimum of 101, if the majority threshold is specified at 50% + one.

Note that a majority threshold may be required from 50% plus one, to 75%, or 90% or even 100% such as we require for jury criminal conviction.

Before we get deeper into majority threshold, note that we have clarified the definition of various concepts.

Government, is a specified decision process that enacts and enforces law and policy within a society.

It is useful to consider two exclusive paradigms for that process. Oligarchy and Democracy.

Oligarchy is rule by minority.

Democracy is rule by majority.

Next, the difference between the decision process, and the result of using that process, and how the concept of representation is correctly administrated in a decision process.

In an oligarchy, a minority of the citizens are represented within the decision process.

In a democracy, every citizen is represented within the decision process.

Regardless of which paradigm is used, whether democracy or oligarchy, it is very unlikely that every citizen will be represented by the result of using the decision process.

Kings have grumbling peasants, that will not change by swapping to an elected congress, or voting in a new king or congress.

If the entire population agrees with some act of law, then the decision is already made, regardless of decision process. It is ONLY when humans disagree on a matter, that some form of government, decision process, is required.

Next episode, majority threshold and the edge of representation.

(hint: representation is not equivalent to misrepresentation.)