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Single Idea 24419

[catalogued under 24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 5. Democracy / e. Democratic minorities]

Full Idea

A member of a minority voting against a law appears to be in the position of a man who, deliberating on a moral question, rejects an alternative only to find it forced upon him by a superior power.

Gist of Idea

The minority in a vote make a moral judgement which is then forcibly overruled

Source

Robert Paul Wolff (In Defence of Anarchism [1970], 2.4)

A Reaction

If felt like this about the 2016 Brexit. I was forced to reject people I considered to be our friends. Wolff (following Kant) sees individual moral autonomy as the main human value, so this is the key anarchist objection to democracy.

Book Reference

Wolff,Robert Paul: 'In Defence of Anarchism' [Harper Torchbooks 1976], p.39