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Such a system can be regarded as a “basis for a consensual decision-making process” (Vetter 118). In this sense, consensus democracy is similar to consociationalism and proportional democracy which also have power-sharing as their main principle.Īnother important feature which distinguishes the consensus model of democracy from the majoritarian one is proportional electoral system. This, however, does not mean that the consensus democracy differs from the majoritarian one in preferring majority rule to the minority one instead, “it accepts the majority rule only as a minimum requirement: instead of being satisfied with narrow decision-making majorities, it seeks to minimize the size of these majorities” (Clarke and Foweraker 90). The main consensual feature of the consensus model of democracy is that a great amount of people is admitted to governing with the interests of each of them being valued and with government’s trying to settle all the possible conflicts and disagreements.
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In addition to this, the consensus democracy permits the citizens’ participating not only in decision-making, but informing of political agenda as well. Its rules and institutions aim at broad participation in government and broad agreement on policies that the government should pursue” (Vetter 118). The basic principle of the consensus model of democracy is integrating as many opinions in the political decision-making process as it is possible: “Instead of being satisfied with narrow decision-making majorities, it (the consensus model) seeks to maximize the size of these majorities. The consensus democracy is built on compromise and inclusiveness. This all makes the majoritarian model of democracy opposite to the consensus one. And finally, states with majority model of democracy (for instance, the United Kingdom) do not have a written constitution. Thirdly, this is a centralized or unitary government. Secondly, this is the dominance of two parties during the elections, the major and the minor ones, which is necessary for giving the voice to the minority (Saward 53). First of all, this is the concentration of executive power within one political party. Therefore, there are several main features of a majoritarian model of democracy. This is why such a type of democracy is called namely “majoritarian”. This accounts for the share of vote being disproportional in such governments with larger parties gaining the biggest share of vote and smaller ones gaining the smallest. Though the minorities’ voice is quite valuable in the governments with majoritarian democracy, they still are so few that they can hardly influence political decision-making. Minorities’ having their own influence on the politics is obligatory for the majoritarian democracy this is what distinguishes it from the minoritarian model (which is often referred to as deliberative democracy where the veto players have increased powers) (Lane and Ersson 254). One of such requirements is necessary participation of minorities in all the decisions related to politics. The main features of the Majoritarian democracy are majoritarian election techniques, referendum, and a unitary state with civic republicanism being correspondent to all the requirements of a majoritarian democracy (Lane and Ersson 254).
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If at least any of these principles is not observed, the Rule of Law is regarded as not completely realized and, correspondingly, the manifestation of the majority will is hindered. Consistent with legitimate public purposes and sound, shared principles of political morality (Murphy 3).