Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point

Early democracies across western countries created excessive counter-majoritarian institutions to protect minority rights over majority rule. The US appeared to be one of the most democratic of these countries. Over the course of the 20th century, however, non-US countries, including Norway, New Zealand, Finland, and Australia, reformed their counter-majoritarian institutions, giving power back to majorities.

These reforms focused on five areas. First, they repealed restrictions on voting. Second, they removed indirect elections. Third, they reformed electoral systems, “or the rules that govern how votes are translated into representation” (205). Many countries eliminated the winner-take-all system, replacing it with proportional representation. Fourth, the reforms removed the undemocratic elements of legislative bodies, including abolishing aristocratic chambers and making them more representative. Many democratic countries during this time also limited minority obstruction during the legislative process, establishing a procedure called “cloture.” Cloture allows majorities to end debates. Thus, filibusters and supermajorities can no longer kill legislation with these reforms. Finally, democracies have also reformed the judicial system, including adopting mandatory retirement age or term-limits for high court justices. Levitsky and Ziblatt underscore that “eliminating counter-majoritarianism helped give rise to modern democracy” (213).

The US took some steps to reform its counter-majoritarian institutions in the 20th century.