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Definition 2024


dictatorship_of_the_majority

dictatorship of the majority

English

Noun

dictatorship of the majority (plural dictatorships of the majority)

  1. (politics) A situation in which a government or other authority democratically supported by a majority of its subjects makes policies or takes actions benefiting that majority, without regard for the rights or welfare of the rest of its subjects.
    • 1897, American Fabian, vol. 3-4, p. 14:
      As to the reproach that Socialists desire either the dictatorship of the proletariat over the higher classes—or the dictatorship of the majority over the minority, Herr Liebknecht successfully disposes of these accusations.
    • 1985, Alex Callinicos, "Repressive toleration revisited" in Aspects of Toleration J. Horton and S. Mendus eds., ISBN 9780416392906, p. 64:
      Both the Jacobins and Lenin believed in a temporary dictatorship of the majority over counterrevolutionary minorities.
    • 2005, John Coakley and Michael Gallagher, Politics in the Republic of Ireland, ISBN 9780415280679, p. 67:
      The ease with which the will of the greater number may be translated into the dictatorship of the majority has not yet become the subject of public debate.

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