Tyranny of the Minority

Category: Politics

Published: 05/27/2009 06:53 a.m.

I am a big fan of the pure democracy. I don't think it ever really works in the sense that people would like it to, but it is hard to argue with the results of an untainted vote.

In the pop culture phenom American Idol, we have seen the "best" contestant lose now two years in a row. And while the competition claims to be about finding the best, it really finds the most popular new artist. I love and support this, but many people want to argue that the majority is wrong. And in cases where the majority loses, I call it the Tyranny of the Minority.

Imagine a high school with 70% Jocks and 30% Band kids with 1000 total students. The Jocks only listen to Pop music and hate everything else. The Band Kids love Classic Rock and despise all other forms of music. The high school Prom is coming up, and the committee (7 Jocks, 3 Band kids) is trying to decide what music to play that would please the most amount of people.

Now, most people would simply try to break it down by the student body. They would suggest playing 70% Pop music and 30% Classic Rock. But, if the goal is to please the most amount of people, they should really play 100% Pop music. Here's why.

If the DJ plays 70% Pop music and 30% Classic Rock, here is the breakdown of satisfied Prom-goers.

70% Pop music x 700 Jocks = 490 satisfied people. 30% Classic Rock x 300 Band kids = 90 satisfied people. The total result is 580 satisfied people. That's just over half, or not great.

Now lets imagine we take a democratic approach. The 7 Jocks on the Prom committee vote for 100% Pop, and the 3 Band kids vote for 100% Classic Rock. The result is 100% Pop. In this scenario:

700 Jocks x 100% Pop = 700 satisfied students. 300 Band kids x 0% Classic Rock = 0 satisfied students. The total result is 700 satisfied students, or about a 20% increase from the 70/30 music split scenario above.

Most people don't like these results. They think it is unfair for one group to get everything. But, the above result of 700 satisfied students is a direct result of democracy, which is supposed to be the fair and even way of doing things. But, for any Prom that didn't result in 100% Pop music, I say that the minority is the one who is bringing down the overall group satisfaction just to increase their own.

What I'm really hoping to prove is that democracy is a tool that is rarely the best fit. If the above example replaced "listening to music" with "who gets to eat food", the minority would starve. That would be a very bad thing. Democracy is not always the right tool, and really tends to further aid the majority. So, its no surprise that in a country with a strong majority, the idea of pure democracy continues to lead the way. But thankfully, the USA is not itself a democracy, but is instead a democratic republic, and the tyranny of the minority is the way we protect ourselves from Despotism.