The Fallacy of Absolute Majority Rule

Abstract

Perhaps no development of modern times has created so serious a dilemma for the theory and practice of democratic government as the rise of the totalitarian mass party. This type of party is distinguished by the fact that, while it is eager to exploit the opportunities afforded by the democratic process for persuasion and vote-seeking, it is nevertheless dedicated to a set of goals which, if attained, would destroy that process. The dilemma now presents itself on at least two levels: First, is a democratic system obligated to make available the channels of participation even to parties whose undeniable objective is the destruction of the democratic process? And second, are democrats obligated to recognize as legitimate a government controlled by a totalitarian mass party that has succeeded in attaining office by clear majority vote? This paper will deal with the second of these questions, although it is recognized that the questions are closely related and that an analysis of one of them will necessarily have bearing upon the other. The problem of the obligations required by the principle of majority rule will arise in coming European elections as it has already arisen in the recent Italian elections where, for a time, it appeared that the Communists might gain a majority of the votes cast. In the face of that possibility, western democratic opinion exhibited a confusion that disclosed, as the textbooks have never succeeded in doing, the profound uncertainty that attends the understanding of the majority principle. For, underlying the fear that the Communists might win the election was a tentative yet disturbing belief that the commitment to majority rule might compel democrats, both inside and outside of Italy, to recognize as a government-by-right even the dictatorship that the Communists would most certainly have established. Implicitly, those who held this belief were subscribing to a theory of political obligation best designated perhaps as the theory of absolute majority rule-that is not without support in the litera[637 J