The Rights Of Minority Rights

When writing the Constitution, one of the most prominent arguments focused on whether America should be considered a Democracy. A large percentage of the founding fathers feared the term “Democracy” because they strongly believed that if the people had control, then there would be disorder and violence. As James Madison stated in Federalist No. 10,

But, the Constitution limits the majority only because of the fear of uprisings from the minorities. The framers wrote the Constitution with the mindset of preventing the majority to dominate the minority. If there was no limit on majority rule, the majority could end up making all the decisions. This would leave the minorities fueled with anger and they would have a reason to overthrow the government. An uprising that caused the framers to limit majority rule was Shay’s Rebellion. The framers saw that the minority, poor farmers, did not have any choice because the majority dominated them. The framers also realized that this uprising could have taken down the nation because the nation was also unorganized and weak at that time. This event made the framers realized that the minority should also have power or else the majority would dominate again.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is well-armed lamb contesting that vote.” I believe Franklin’s famous quote means that the majority of the vote does not represent all of the citizen’s interests, and this is unfair. For example, the two wolves would decide to eat the lamb for lunch and the lamb wouldn’t even get a say. However, if liberty (the lamb) had a tree on its property that it wanted to keep and the officials (the wolves) wanted to get rid of it, the lamb would get a say because the majority of the vote wouldn’t matter. The tree is on the lamb’s property, so it wouldn’t matter who else wants it there, because it’s the lamb’s right to keep it. Therefore, there are some matters where there is an imbalance of power in democracy, and other matters where individuals' rights are protected.

A government for the people, by the people, requires input from all its citizens. The American experiment is a great success that has inspired others to defend the voices of all its citizens. Yet, this was not always so. In the early years of our great democratic experiment we had reserved those unalienable rights to a select few. We discriminated based on race, gender, and color. Therefore, reformers began calling for changes. The reform movements of 1825-1855 in the U.S helped further develop democratic ideals by creating a new range of voters that were more educated, diverse, and healthy. It accomplished this by advocating towards women's suffrage, abolition, which would lead to African-American suffrage, progression towards a better educational

Majorities often threaten the rights of minorities. There are only two methods of avoiding evil. The first is to construct a powerful government, a "community will." Such a "will' is larger than, and independent of, the simply majority. This "solution" is dangerous because such a government might throw its power behind a group in society working against the public good. In our country, the authority to govern comes from the entire society the people. In addition, under the Constitution society is divided into many groups of people who hold different views and have different interests. This makes it very difficult for one group to dominate or threaten the minority groups.

The constitution laid the groundwork for America's citizens giving essential rights to everyone. That would have been the ideal America; Humans are flawed and there of course has to be some form of disagreement. Throughout America's existence there have been arguments, public unrest, deadly altercations and disagreements when it comes to people's rights. An instance of this can be shown through Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign. He dreamed of abolishing the mentality of the south not allowing blacks to vote. Dr. King also wanted to unite people not matter their skin color. Dr. King was another activist who contributed to the Civil Rights Act being passed. Due to Dr. King's acts the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was established to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States.

Also, the founders had no intention of creating a pure, majority rule democracy. After a careful study of history, they decided that they did not want a pure democracy. A pure democracy has been colorfully described as two wolves and a lamb voting on what 's for dinner! The founding fathers wanted to avoid this at all cost. In addition, this is why there are three branches of government, Executive, Legislative and Judicial. It is why each state has two Senators, regardless of the population, but has different numbers of

They say majority rules and that couldn’t be more true in our society today. In order for the minority to be protected by the majority the U.S Constitution was written. Amendments in the constitution were put together to protect the U.S citizens. Federalist papers were written by James Madison, go through what responsibilities the government has to take on for its citizens.

America was not always a democracy for all. We excluded everyone who was not a white male. Women and African Americans have been excluded the most. They were not allowed a lot of basic rights given to American citizens, because of their gender and race. African Americans were granted the right to vote in the late 1800’s; while woman were granted the right to vote in the early 1920’s. Even though they were granted the right to vote they didn’t always get to. There were many people who still considered them second class citizens and used intimidation to deter them from voting. After years of protest

Most people believe that the United States of America is a democracy, or a government run by the voice of the citizens. But this country is actually built on a slightly different principle; one that values the representation of groups more than the whole population as one. A country ruled by the choices of the majority could become an unjust and entirely undemocratic state. The framers of the constitution understood this possibility and worked to limit the power of popular majorities in order to have a fair and equally representative government. Chapter 2, The Constitution and Democracy, states:

The writers of the Constitution chose to have majority rule be a major part of the government so that the government would immediately reflect the desires of the people and so that minorities with crazy ideas would not be able to take over. They believed that the majority would be the most right group of people in the nation; and that the majority would decide right by conscience. In addition, the United States government is not a government based on justice, it is a government based on law. Any government based on justice would involve someone examining each specific scenario and deciding what was just. The founding fathers wanted to avoid this kind of government, as it was based on the opinion of a few people, and if these people became corrupted, they could have unlimited power. The founding fathers chose instead to enact a system of laws to which everyone would be held - even the government leaders. If the majority of people are following the teachings of the Bible, then the 'right' decided by the majority should be synonymous with the right decided by conscience; and this was the original intent of the founding fathers.

After the second drafting of the Constitution, our founding fathers officially paved the way for the representative democracy that we use today.  Although the citizens of the US still directly vote for the President, our representatives in the electoral college have a stronger influence in the decision.  These leaders and politicians often times make huge decisions pushing our communities and nation either forward or sometimes backward.  The days of direct democracy were lost long ago in ancient Athens; with the increasing population, it is almost impossible to maintain pure democracy with every decision.  That is why in 1787 Alexander Hamilton and James Madison strived to bring people of power together to form a group of delegates in charge of making decisions. Out of the men who came together to create the documents all of them were white, rich, landowners, and many of the owned slaves. However, they all shared a common interest to set the groundwork to create the best possible nation at the time. In order to achieve this goal, the men had to

My partner and I stand in affirmative of the following resolution. Resolved:The united states government ought to pay reparations to African Americans. African Americans have had roughly 300 years of legalized oppression. If that doesn’t entitle a group to reparations, I’m not sure what does. This would benefit ALL Americans by providing the environment in which African-American talent can rise to its potential that is why we as Americans have the duty to pay back the African Americans in reparations.

“America is the number 1 nation in the world!” is a common phrase we hear time and time again. American citizens, in my opinion, have a distorted view on how “awesome” our country is. America was founded on the idea of freedom – at least freedom for white men at the time. While we have grown and made bounds for the rights of minorities like African Americans, Hispanics and women; there is still room to grow. So many of our citizens feel disenfranchised by our government and that our implemented democracy doesn’t grant them the same rights as others. This is usually a feeling felt by those in minority groups. Many in the majority don’t realize that there are these discrepancies in our democracy because it’s not something that affects them. That is one of the obstacles, many turn a blind-eye to the injustices they see within our democracy because they do not want to get involved or they want the status quo to stay intact. The majority’s desire to stay on-top in our country is a huge influence in how those in the minority then view their abilities. Many minority members feel hopeless and that despite speaking up a power shift to equality will never be attainable. There is a profound lack of representation of minority groups in offices of power. As discussed in this class, there have only even been eight African American US Senators, and only two currently in the Senate now. This lack of representation harms minority youth because when they have grand dreams of changing the

Government also tries to control our lives and means of sustenance by the affirmative action policies it has adopted. Democracy should ensure people the right to work irrespective of race or ethnicity. Worthy people have lost in this competition of the labor market just because he is not of some particular caste or religion. It sure has some positive sides to it but then again the minorities can be protected and nurtured by following the same policies of encouraging education and training in skills used in this labor market.