Introduction

• Author: Craig Forcese - Aaron Freeman
• Pages: 1-7

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Introduction

Two key principles inform “liberal” democracy — the kind of democracy we

enjoy in Canada. First, government should be by the citizenry, at least in-

directly. Second, government by that citizenry cannot become a tyranny of

the majority, or as Oscar Wilde put it, the “bludgeoning of the people by the

people for the people.”1 Each assertion requires greater explanation.

A. GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE

As def‌ined by the Oxford English Dictionary, democracy is “that form of gov-

ernment in which the sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and

is exercised either directly by them . . . or by off‌icers elected by them.” In

practice, government by the people is conducted via universal suffrage; that

is, the election of representatives by the entire electorate, a body def‌ined by

shared citizenship and minimum-age requirements. The selection of repre-

sentatives through the electoral process is largely a leap of faith that having

more people involved in governance — or at least in the selection of govern-

ments — is better than having fewer. As E.B. White put it, democracy is a

“recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than

half of the time.”2

Given such a modest batting average, it is perhaps possible to imagine a

better style of government, not least the benign, but exclusive, government

1 “The Soul of Man under Socialism” Fortnightly Review (February 1891).

2 “World Government and Peace” The New Yorker (3 July 1944).