Democracy is often portrayed as the best political system because it allows everybody to vote, and to have an opinion, regardless of social status. This is often misused when people assume what the majority wants is what everybody needs the most. Or that since everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, then all opinions are equal and there is no way one claim can be worse or better than any other claim.
In reality, the rule of majority is simply promoting the most favorable option. The results of a poll or an election do not give you the right answer, they give you the answer most believe is the most suitable. The rule of majority is simply aiming to satisfy as many people as it can by assuming the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Which is a pretty big misconception, since what you want is not always what you need and specialists who know more about a subject never outnumber those who know close to nothing.
Circlejerking is the result of a group of people with very similar beliefs promoting a very specific agenda through the illusion of majority. Of course and you will be agreeing on everything if you are part of a group with same-minded people. This is also what gives the illusion of popularity as an indicator of quality. The more people agree on something the better said something appears to be.
Anyone who doesn’t know much about said something but otherwise wants to be accepted within a group, ends up adopting the rule of majority and jumps on the
But conforming to what the majority is doing because it is deemed as cool is a whole different story. Instead of conforming to keep society running smoothly, we sometimes conform due to fear that we will receive hateful backlash for breaking against the norm or in fear that we will be wrong. Solomon Asch explains the latter reason when he conducted an experiment to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform. In his experiment, there was only one true participant and 4 other fake participants that will help prove his point correct. Cards were shown to everyone where there were lines of different length illustrated. They all had to choose which line was the longest. The first four people at the table were the fake participants and purposely chose the wrong answers. The last person was the true participant in the experiment and in all of the experiments they conducted, the last person always went with what the rest of the group thought even though he knew that the answer was incorrect. After the experiment was conducted, the real participants were interviewed and asked why they went along with everyone else even though they knew the answer was incorrect. “Most of them said that they did not really
In everyday life we look at what others are doing and make decisions based on what we see. This mentality can at times be useful, but it can also cause issues with not only an individual, but also the group or business. In my group of friends at times we have this herd mentality and will want to buy the same things or do the same things because others are doing it. This mentality takes away from people being an individual and making their own decisions instead of worrying about what everyone else is doing. Why herd behavior increased as a groups size increases is what will be discussed in the next section.
According to source two, people will make their decision on a topic, and completely ignore other’s opinions. People will usually argue their opinion, without much research and understanding. But these types of people are most likely ignorant and arrogant. Many people will look around, and change their choice many times. Most people will make their decision from research and create viewpoints. But many people will give up identity to create the ideology of other people and only argue their leaders
Every form of government is bound to have some shortfalls. Different people have different views about the various political systems. But in today's world, democracy is considered to be the best form of government, reason being that people are treated equally and have full rights to live a life of their liking. Unlike a Oligarchy government is not considered to be a
* I’m not sure if your interpretations of majority rule match mine. Majority rule was instituted to protect the majority from getting too powerful. The majority could not act unwillingly against the minority’s
Bandwagon fallacy is used for setting off the morality of European people who judge or be
Democracy is known as a system of government when all eligible people of a state can voice their own opinions as well as elect representatives. Democracy is not once mentioned in The Declaration of Independence. Pros of a democracy are, its by the people and for the people. Democracy is meant for everybody to be eligible to vote and they are able to vote. The people are also able to participate in what they think, feel , and voice about the political, social, and economic issues that are presented to them. It's in the people's best interest not just the governments. The goal is to find solutions with decision-makers best interest. The main goal is to is find solutions that are best for the people and regulate conflicts between states and government. A democracy imposes equality, the people's votes carry the same weight, which makes all individuals to be heard and make them feel as if their opinion is important. Other than in elections of the state a citizens
According to Irving Janes (1972), groupthink occurs when a group makes an irrational decision because of group pressure fostering and the deterioration of ‘mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgement” (Irving, Janis, Victims of groupthink, p.9). Social influence is the effect that people have upon the beliefs or behaviors of others (Aaronson, 2004). Both groupthink and social influence theory have a factor in what
First of all, even though majority rule is often associated with democracy and political equality, the essence of democratic procedure does not require majority rule insofar as all the people have power over political affairs (Saunders, 2010). It is therefore necessary to
Aristotle says that justice is thought of as equality among all, there is a disregard to merit (p.172). In a society, there is usually more poor people and because there is this demand of equality then the majority rule (p.174). Mob rule is then authoritative. All governments have their forms, which are good and are bad. Democracy to Aristotle is not the best regime because it is ruled by the poor or the ones that need from the government. Government is not chosen by those who pursue virtue, but instead pursue wealth. The democratic principle is that of freedom, wealth, and birth. Not virtue. He believes the best regime would not be exactly a democracy but a polity that would be a combination of freedom, wealth, birth and virtue. The best regime has ideal conditions in which it becomes a predictable regime and consists of values, choices, the inanimate, elements of the class of workers, and the education of rulers. Democracy has a big defect in that it does not have intelligence or wisdom. It is the rule of many. It is based on the idea of happiness by following pleasures (p.48). Democracy comes into play when the majority revolt against the oligarchy because of the ideas of freedom. The problem with it is that people are pursuing their pleasures, not thinking of the state as a whole. There is unity based on pleasure. Before long, everyone is pursuing their own pleasures and there is an undermining of authority
highly cohesive groups where there is a great deal of pressure to agree with each other
Dawes (1990) determined, the False Consensus Effect (FCE) as an egoistic bias that causes people to perceive that others from their own social groups support similar perceptions and ideas regarding a particular prospect. For example; a person who enjoys watching a TV show and finds it to be the funniest might generalise his perception to others as well. He might oversimplify that fact that the show he watches is the funniest. In simpler words, the idea that everyone thinks in the same way as we do, when most often they do not, is termed as The False Consensus Effect (Taylor, 2011).
Normative influence primarily occurs in situations where an individual, when amidst others in a crowd, tend to go along with them primarily in order to be liked and accepted by them as part of their fraternity. Research has identified that normative inference normally occurs as an inborn human nature as human beings tends to associate themselves with others in order to maintain a good social contact and relationship with them. Ideally, normative influence is normally furthered by the need for an individual to increase their chances of surviving especially during adverse conditions. This entails that people may at times seem to agree with others just in order for them to appease themselves to them and avoid potential conflict of standing alone and standing out. In some situations normative influence may occur where individuals associate with complete strangers. In such cases, due to mutual fear for each other, an individual may naturally try to agree with the rest in order to avoid appearing as contradictory or controversial.
Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Democracy allows eligible citizens to participate equally—either directly or through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination.
Finally, democracy is the best form of government thus far because it is susceptible to change. The role of high courts, and equal rights makes change possible. For example, if the majority impedes on a minority groups’ rights, over time, the legislature will adjust, enumerating those who were previously attacked. Overall, democracy makes the necessary refinements needed to keep up with societal developments.