Analysis Of John Stuart Mill's Tyranny Of The Majority

Pericles, a key political figure of 5th century Athens states, “Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves.” The Athenians had no desire to follow what appeared as mediocre government, the Athenians pushed for the best form they could find. Arete, for Athens, meant every person had a voice in politics. Politics embraces the reason of the mind as well as the emotion of the heart. Therefore, the very essence of a good human being would lie in being a politically active person. While some, like Plato in his The Republic, thought it weak to give government into the hands of the common people, Pericles countered this argument with a compelling argument of greatness.

This excerpt is giving a sturdy explanation on the topic of tyranny,and how it gave us a clarification on how tyranny is being stopped by overpowering the king.Critics also argued that the king or queen could create laws that applied to only some people and not others, and that unelected officials could make decisions that negatively affected citizens.The people were exhausted and started to realize that they wanted to overthrow the king themselves. Critics of the monarch read and discussed what tyranny meant in order to argue for their notion of the rule of law. Two of the most important people who wrote about tyranny were the ancient Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. At the time of the American Revolution, critics of tyranny discussed and circulated many of Plato and Aristotle’s writings to explain their opposition to tyranny,and how Aristotle had a better view on how the government should ran, the founding fathers took a very good attraction towards the idea of having the rule of law that Aristotle

As a democrat, Paine believed in strong state governments and Washington opposed that. Washington would do anything to make sure that a strong government-led country would survive. In spite of Washington’s efforts, Paine wrote numerous articles in which he tried to reinforce what the Declaration of Independence was actually about. He believed in a world that would focus on democratic rights other than a strong central government. Furthermore, Paine considered it to be a privilege of the country to decide its legislature, to gain individual rights, and to obtain their freedom.

1. What is essential to the “preservation of liberty?” How should this “be so constituted?” The powers of government must be separated in order to preserve liberty To do this, the members of one branch should have little to no power over the selection of members of another branch This separation of powers ensures that no one branch gains control of the other two branches The people should have control and elect who fills most offices 2. Explain the following: “A dependence upon the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.” Man has the tendency to put his ambitions first and be greedy The government is made up of man; therefore there must be Constitutional safeguards restricting the actions of powerful government

In document D it says “Those who obsess about voter turnout are perhaps the ones to whom we should pay the least attention. The less legitimate politician feel, the more they try to pass laws that build around their regimes a Potemkin facade* of citizen involvement.” This quote shows that compulsory voting is bad because they are saying don’t focus on people who always vote, focus on the people who don’t and make them vote. The document shows how governments can force their citizens to vote and that governments need to earn the support of their citizens, this document could be used to argue that requiring citizens of a democracy to vote is a violation of consent of the government is

The Declaration of Independence v. The Constitution The Declaration of Independence is more significant than the United States Constitution, for the principles in the Declaration revolutionized the citizens’ thinking towards themselves and the role of government. As aforementioned, the ethics in the Declaration caused people’s viewpoints to be more respectful towards themselves. For example, the Declaration of Independence begins discussing the unalienable rights of men; these unalienable rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The colonists are essentially stating that King Charles III is not abiding these rights, causing them to grow agitated. Similarly, the document asserts that the citizens must overthrow a government

As a Federalist he believed the central government should hold the most power and influence over everything else. He thought the people themselves favored a government where the power was directly out of their control. He became critical of the other national delegates’ plan for ratification stating that it was more of the same as the Articles of Confederation (Lack et al, 1987.) Hamilton thought the people’s role in government to be that of a liability. He stated that the people were constantly changing in their attitudes and dispositions, and could not be trusted to make a sound judgement or do what was right for the nation.

A. S. Ferguson (1922) suggests that the parable is indicative of how leaders “without a strong philosophical mind-set” manipulate the human population for their advantage. Thus, Plato bypasses Ferguson’s argument when he advocates the “philosopher-king” – the Aristocratic ruler. Surely, a “lawless” tyrant (Plato, 380 BCE) such as Gyges would be whiling to use propaganda in order to regulate the knowledge of a population. Famously, scientia potentia est -“knowledge is power” (Hobbes, 1651) – hence, by restricting the knowledge of a population one is eroding their power and protecting oneself (stated above). Rather ironically, in his description of “The Republic”, Plato describes the “old quarrel between philosophy and poetry”, leading to a total ban on the arts

John Locke once said “citizens have the right to rebel against a government that does not respect the rights of its citizens”. The responsibility is in the hands of U.S citizens to rebel when felt needed, until a compromise is established through cooperation from them and their government. Being a United States citizen is not just about exercising their rights as Americans like to vote or pay taxes. Being a U.S citizen is about protesting, taking

Firstly, the authors are divided over the question whether populism is a threat to democracy. Populism weakens the liberal side of democracy as minority rights are hurt for the sake of mass-politics (Canovan 1999, 7; Mudde 2004, 562). In addition, populists diverge from democratic actors due to their anti-pluralist attitude. More precisely, populists discredit their opponents (Müller 2015, 85; 2014, 487 f). One might argue that democratic politicians also argue against their opponents, but they do not deny the very right to opposition.