Abstract

Our discussion is concerned with the rights of minorities within those states where majority rule is the basis of legitimate government. These include both unitary nation-states and federations. We exclude, however, states where the composition and policies of the government are not subject to periodic change by popular elections in which the votes of the majority prevail. These other states have, indeed, minority populations in the sense of ethnic and religious groups, but there are special problems for minorities who vote in countries with majority rule simply because, by definition, a minority cannot assume governing power by electoral means in such a state. Where there are substantial noncitizen minorities who cannot vote, they have no direct means whatever of asserting their rights through the electoral process. But whether or not minorities are enfranchised, a country in which the principle of majority rule is generally accepted faces intellectual, moral, and practical difficulties in determining how the rights of minorities can properly be established.

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