Majority Decisions Principles and Practices

This book presents the most complete set of analytical, normative, and historical discussions of majority decision making to date. One chapter critically addresses the social-choice approach to majority decisions, whereas another presents an alternative to that approach. Extensive case studies discuss majority voting in the choice of religion in early modern Switzerland, majority voting in nested assemblies such as the French Estates-General and the Federal Convention, majority voting in federally organized countries, qualified majority voting in the European Union Council of Ministers, and majority voting on juries. Other chapters address the relation between majority decisions and cognitive diversity, the causal origin of majority decisions, and the pathologies of majority decision making. Two chapters, finally, discuss the counter-majoritarian role of courts that exercise judicial review. The editorial Introduction surveys conceptual, causal, and normative issues that arise in the theory and practice of majority decisions.

1. Introduction Stéphanie Novak and Jon Elster; 2. Putting faith to the ballot Olivier Christin; 3. Nested majorities Jon Elster; 4. The issue of majority in a federal system: constituent power and amendment of the federal compact Olivier Beaud; 5. The reception of social choice theory by democratic theory Gerry Mackie; 6. What should 'majority decision' mean? Michel Balinski and Rida Laraki; 7. The force of majority rule Adrian Vermeule; 8. The tyranny and brutality of majority rule Jon Elster; 9. Two effects of a high threshold of qualified majority Stéphanie Novak; 10. Democracy, judgment, and juries Melissa Schwartzberg; 11. Majority rule in constitutional democracies Pasquale Pasquino; 12. The majoritarian threat to democracy: constitutional courts and the democratic pact Samuel Issacharoff.

Stéphanie Novak serves as a Roman Herzog Research Fellow at the Hertie School of Governance (Berlin). She is the author of La Prise de décision au Conseil de l´Union européenne: Pratiques du vote et du consensus (2011) and the recipient of the Prix Fondation Saint-Simon and Prix Dalloz for her dissertation from Sciences Po Paris.
Jon Elster is Robert K. Merton Professor of Social Science at Columbia University. The author of 23 monographs, translated into 18 languages, his recent books include Securities against Misrule (Cambridge University Press, 2013), Alexis de Tocqueville: The First Social Scientist (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and Explaining Social Behavior (Cambridge University Press, 2007).