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Civil Rights Movement: Madisonian Democracy

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The continuing struggle to achieve civil rights despite the Civil Rights Movement highlights the ways in which the Madisonian Democratic system is failing in the United States. Madisonian Democracy and a majoritarian understanding of democracy are based on similar ideas but have a distinct and important difference: protection of minorities and individual rights. A majoritarian democracy is one in which the majorities win without consideration for minority rights and is, perhaps, democracy in it’s simplest form – the people or the elected officials vote, and the majority vote wins. A Madisonian Democracy is a composite form of government. Like a majoritarian democracy, the majority opinion holds most the power, however, checks and balances are put in place to ensure a protection of minority and individual rights, as well as minimize the risk of abusive uses of power. In a Madisonian Democracy, cooperation and …show more content…

A key concept in Madisonian Democracy is preventing the domination of a factions, or “groups motivated by selfish interests against the common good” (Bianco). Also important to the concept of a Madisonian government is pluralism – the idea that having a variety of contesting parties will ensure that no one group can completely control the majority vote and take power. One can see the basis of a Madisonian Democracy in the modern United States government and the understanding of those who work in it. Illinois State Senator from the 9th District Daniel Bliss said, “when I find something immensely frustrating, I ask myself am I frustrated because something is broken and corrupt or because I didn’t get to be the emperor? And every time it is option B, I remind myself that is actually a positive thing, because this way we never have

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