Political inclusion as a reason for majoritarianism and counter-majoritarianism (reflections of a constitutionalist)

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This article is devoted to the question of counter-majoritarianism as a significant feature of developed democracy. The author argues that a trend of counter-majoritarianism is one of the strongest of modern political systems and analyzes the content, reasons, designation, and mechanisms of counter-majoritarianism. The essence and the goal of majoritarianism are the protection of rights and interests of minorities, while its guaranties include increasing the significance of the institutions of public power, which balance those expressed by the majority and express their interests. These institutions of public power include, for example, courts (constitutional courts, first and foremost), upper houses of parliaments, the decentralization of public power, quotas for political representation of minorities, and so on. The main reason for counter-majoritarianism is political inclusion. That process was originally designed for the strengthening of majoritarianism while it provides for the political participation of the majority of a population in accordance with the principle of popular sovereignty. But each of the social groups involved is a minority, and being thusly involved in the political processes they start to more actively express their interests and demand that the government protect them. So the modern community is therefore turning into a society of minorities, as A.Toffler said, while modern democracy is turning into a mechanism of compromises and accommodations of interests. This article pays particular attention to the constitutional mechanism of providing rights and interests of such minorities and other vulnerable strata as political opposition, national and religious minorities, immigrants, youth, women, and prisoners.

About the author: Irina Alebastrova – Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D.) in Law, Associate Professor, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.

Citation: Alebastrova I. (2018) Politicheskaya inklyuziya kak faktor mazhoritarizma i kontrmazhoritarizma (razmyshleniya konstitutsionalista) [Political inclusion as a reason for majoritarianism and counter-majoritarianism (reflections of a constitutionalist)]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol.27, no.4, pp.16–37. (In Russian).

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