Majority Rule:Justification And Its Limits

Majority Rule——which means that more than half of the total number of voters can make decisions when making decisions on two options——is a common method of collective decision-making.Although majority rule is widely used in various formal and informal collective decision-making situations,there is little in-depth understanding of the legitimacy of this highly “familiar” decision-making method.This brings about two problems: first,some people may think that majority rule is always legitimate,so that in some apparently inappropriate circumstances,such as the existence of “fixed majority” and “fixed minority”,they insist on the use of majority rule,resulting in the misuse of majority rule,which is harmful to the realization of the legitimacy of decisions.Secondly,some people may think that as a “counting heads” decision-making method,majority rule is a manifestation of the majority's force,so it has no legitimacy at all,and even often leads to “tyranny of the majority”,thus seriously undermining the legitimacy of the decision-making process.This idea makes it difficult for people to internally accept decisions made by majority rule,which is not conducive to the smooth implementation of the actually legitimate decision-making results.The research on the justification of majority rule is helpful to explain why this decision-making method has legitimacy,and what are the conditions and limits of its legitimacy,which is helpful to solve the above two problems.The core of the justification of majority rule is to unveil what values this decision-making method can realize,thus providing reasons for the majority to legitimately enforce their decisions among all decision-makers.Based on the reviewing of the existing studies,we can find that the values used to justify the majority rule mainly include two types: one is instrumental values,such as “maximizing utility”;the other is procedural values,such as “equal respect for individuals”.The analysis shows that the first kind of values can often be realized by other decision-making methods,so they are not sufficient to justify the legitimacy of majority rule independently,in the justification of majority rule they can only be “supplementary” reasons.The second kind of values are directly related to the internal features of majority rule,so they are usually difficult to be realized by other decision-making procedures.Based on the proper interpretations,the second kind of values can become the main reasons for the justification of majority rule.However,there are some defects in the existed studies for the justification of majority rule with procedural values,which mainly include three aspects.Firstly,the arguments for procedural values which can be realized by majority rule are not perfect enough,so the foundations of the existed justifications are not solid enough;secondly,these studies tend to resort to a single value to justify the majority rule,neither fully examining the values of majority rule,nor making extensive comparisons with other decision-making methods,such as lottery,relative majority rule,specific majority rule,etc.Without a comprehensive comparison with other decision-making procedures on the various procedural values,the majority rule can't be justified at all;thirdly,these studies also generally ignore the conditions for majority rule to realize these values.This leads to the belief that majority rule is always legitimate by realizing certain values,which is actually wrong.On the basis of fixing the interpretations of the procedural values that can be realized by majority rule,combined with the proper analysis of the instrumental values,this paper puts forward a new idea of the justification of majority rule by comparing it with various decision-making methods.At the same time,it clarifies the conditions for the legitimacy of the majority rule.First of all,Chapter 1 will respond to the view that “majority rule often lead to majority tyranny”,for the legitimacy of majority rule is possible only if it can be shown that majority rule do not normally lead to majority tyranny.By elucidating the mechanism of “eliminating arbitrary power” in the majority rule,it shows that when there is no “fixed majority and minority”,the majority is not only rarely lead to the tyranny of the majority,but also can often realize the value of “eliminating arbitrary power”.Secondly,Chapters 2 to 6 will explore whether the majority rule can be justified comparing with the lottery methods,relative majority rule and so on,mainly based on the procedural values of “equal respect”,“fair treatment”,“individual autonomy” and “elimination of arbitrary power”,supplemented by instrumental values of “promoting deliberation” and “achieving correct decisions”.This comparative argument is based on the research method of “reflective equilibrium” and the coherence theory of moral cognitive theory.That is to say,because the intuition of “majority rule has legitimacy” can be supported by more value principles than the opposite intuition,its reliability is more assured.In the process of comparison,Waldron's interpretation of how do majority rule realize the value of “equal respect” is used directly,and the idea of this interpretation is extended to the analysis of other decision-making methods;how can majority rule realize “individual autonomy” and “eliminating arbitrary power” will be reinterpreted.And the reinterpreted viewpoints will be used to point out the differences on the realization of these values between different decision-making methods,according to the characteristics of these methods.In the process of comparing with “absolute majority rule”,a new value——“impartiality” is put forward.This value is used to show how can the majority rule——which treats the options neutrally——realize the value of treating decision makers impartially better than the absolute majority rule,the unanimous rule and the specific majority rule,that have a bias on the status quo.The discussions in the above six chapters show that when certain conditions are satisfied,the majority rule can not be supported by more value principles than the relative majority rule in the decision-making situation of “more than two options”,so its legitimacy is underdetermined in this situation;in the decision-making situation of “two options”,the majority rule can be supported by more value principles than other decision-making methods.The discussions in above chapters also unveil the conditions and limitations for the majority rule to realize the various values better.These conditions mainly include “no fixed majority and minority”,“majority's reflective acceptance of decision-making results”,and “The actual voters must be more than half of the eligible voters”.Thirdly,the seventh chapter will try to put forward a new value——collective autonomy——based on the discussions of the first six chapters,which is helpful to justify the majority rule.If the decision-makers have formed the intention of “we make collective decisions together by majority rule”,the satisfaction of all decision-makers' s this intention can realize the value of “collective autonomy”.The formation of this “collective intention” that involves other people's actions requires many conditions to be met.The basic condition is that people do have the thought of “we make decisions together by majority rule”.Arguments for the grounds of majority rule's superior legitimacy to other decision-making methods and the unveiling of these arguments' conditions can stimulate the arise of such thoughts,and facilitate the realization of such conditions as “intentions interdependence” and “mutual responsiveness between agents”,which are needed for the formation of collective intentions,thus contributing to the realization of collective autonomy.The intuition that “the majority rule is more legitimate than other decision-making methods” is likely to be supported by the value of “collective autonomy” in the decision-making situation of “two options”,this conclusion will further enhance the reliability of this assertion.Majority rule is not only the manifestation of “the majority's force”,but can be justified by the various values it realize;the realization of these values needs to satisfy many conditions,majority rule can be justified only within the limits of these conditions,it's not always just.The correct understanding of the legitimacy of majority rule is helpful for people to choose the decision-making method properly according to the specific decision-making situations and realize the legitimacy of decision-making.