"So a few hundred thousand people in Wyoming have as much power as tens of millions of people in California or New York. Today, the biggest state is 70 times the size of the smallest state," he said. "At the time of the founding, the biggest state was 13 times the size of the smallest state. And they certainly couldn't have imagined how the population would grow and sort itself out. For one thing, when they wrote the Constitution, they thought only white men with property could vote. Politics Why Possibly Changing The Filibuster Brings Threats Of Political 'Nuclear' WarĪnd Smith says it's really hard to change because the Senate is enshrined in the Constitution.īut Wegman says this is not what the Framers had in mind.
TYRANNY OF THE MINORITY FREE
"You know, under that system we've become like a really rich, powerful, wealthy, free country." "These are the kinds of reasons why at the Constitutional Convention there was the Great Compromise of having one chamber by population and one chamber elected by states," he said. He says the system has worked pretty well because when the Framers designed the Senate, they understood that a small state such as Rhode Island would never have as much clout as a big state such as New York. That's not a sustainable model for a representative democracy."Ĭonservative Republican Brad Smith, a former member of the Federal Election Commission, disagrees. "You have a counter-majoritarian institution chosen by people who were picked by a minority of the citizens. "You have this sort of turbocharged minority rule," he said. That has lots of implications, such as for the Senate filibuster, where a party that represents a shrinking minority of voters can block almost all major legislation.īut it also has implications for the Supreme Court, says Jesse Wegman, author of Let the People Pick the President. Right now, the Senate is split evenly in half, but the 50 Democratic senators represent 41.5 million more people than the 50 Republican senators.īy 2040, if population trends continue, 70% of Americans will be represented by just 30 senators, and 30% of Americans by 70 senators. "The way this is starting to work is that elected representatives who collectively have gathered 10 million, maybe 12 million, maybe by the year 2030 30 million fewer votes are going to stack the judiciary and entrench minority rule," Schatz, a Democrat, said during last year's debate about confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Brian Schatz, from the small state of Hawaii, says that disparity is growing. According to the Constitution, every state - no matter if it has 1 million people, or 30 million - gets two senators.īut Sen. In the Senate, many Democrats say a system designed to protect the rights of smaller states has turned into partisan minority rule.
And now that the 2022 redistricting cycle is beginning, Republicans in many states will be able to get fewer votes but end up with a majority of seats. Twice in the last 20 years, their presidential candidate got more votes but lost the election. More and more Democrats are saying the system is out of whack.
But some wonder whether the United States is sliding toward minority rule.
TYRANNY OF THE MINORITY DOWNLOAD
Calhoun to present day, download this episode of History As It Happens.The American political tradition enshrines majority rule, with rights for the minority. Wilentz discuss the history of “minority rule” in American politics, from John C. But sometimes breaks down and I think it is breaking down now,” Mr.
So there is always this tension, and sometimes the tension can be owned. “There is the vulnerability of majority tyranny, something the framers were very concerned about… But by the same token, you can have a majoritarian system which is undone by minorities. Wilentz, the author of “The Rise of American Democracy.” “Democracy is a fine thing, but it has many, many vulnerabilities,” said Mr. SEE ALSO: History As It Happens: Are we reliving the 1850s? Moreover, the combination of gerrymandering and restrictive voting laws passed in dozens of states, the politicization of state-level election boards, and the ongoing abuse of the filibuster to thwart legislation in the Senate threatens to make permanent the “rule of the minority,” according to the Princeton scholar.
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