Legitimacy, Political Equality, and Majority Rule
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Ratio Juris, 2008, 21, 1, 39-65
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SADURSKI, Wojciech, Legitimacy, Political Equality, and Majority Rule, Ratio Juris, 2008, 21, 1, 39-65 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/8147
Abstract
This paper claims that the intuitive and widespread legitimating power of
majority rule (MR) arises from the link between majority rule and the principle of
equality of political opportunity. The egalitarian character of MR is established by
exploring “puzzles” in democratic theory, such as the insensitivity of democratic
voting procedures to unequal intensity of citizens’ preferences, and the relationship
between the principle of unanimity (sometimes thought better to respect citizens’
equality) and MR. Special attention is directed to the relationship between political
equality and equality in the outcomes of political decisions: The claim is made that
the language of equal political opportunity captures well the idea of equal political
influence, in the circumstance of disagreement about what is required to achieve
equal treatment through the outcomes of political decisions.