majority rule

Examples of majority rule in the following topics:

• Winning an Election: Majority, Plurality, and Proportional Representation

  • Common voting systems are majority rule, proportional representation, or plurality voting with a number of criteria for the winner.
  • Majority rule is a decision rule that selects the option which has a majority, that is, more than half the votes.
  • Some scholars have recommended against the use of majority rule, at least under certain circumstances, due to an ostensible trade-off between the benefits of majority rule and other values important to a democratic society.
  • Being a binary decision rule, majority rule has little use in public elections, with many referendums being an exception.
  • Compare and contrast the voting systems of majority rule, proportional representation and plurality voting

• Popular Consent, Majority Rule, and Popular Sovereignty

  • Popular consent, majority rule, and popular sovereignty are related concepts that form the basis of democratic government.
  • Majority rule is a decision rule that selects the option which has more than half the votes.
  • Some scholars have recommended against the use of majority rule, at least under certain circumstances, due to an ostensible trade-off between the benefits of majority rule and other values important to a democratic society.
  • Most famously, it has been argued that majority rule might lead to a "tyranny of the majority," and the use of a supermajority and constitutional limits on government power have been recommended to mitigate these effects.
  • Recently some voting theorists have argued that majority rule is the rule that best protects minorities.

• The Supreme Court

  • Cases that are granted cert must be chosen for "compelling reasons," as outlined in the court's Rule 10.
  • Cases are decided by majority rule in which at least five of the nine justices have to agree.
  • Bargaining and compromise are often called for to create a majority coalition.
  • Once a decision has been made, one of the justices will write the majority opinion of the Court.
  • The Supreme Court cannot directly enforce its rulings.

• Debate

  • In the Senate, Senators sometimes use this rule to filibuster a bill—that is, continue debating a bill endlessly so that it cannot be voted on.
  • Whichever party is in the majority tends to call its use "obstructionism," while the other side sees it as an important check on the majority.
  • Because of its size, the House relies heavily upon fixed rules and strict timetables for debate.
  • Times for debate and other procedures are set by the House Rules Committee, which is generally considered to be one of the most powerful committees in Congress.

• Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

  • In the 2012 presidential election, super PACs have played a major role, spending more than the candidates' election campaigns in the Republican primaries.
  • Stevens concurred in the court's decision to sustain BCRA's disclosure provisions, but dissented from the principal holding of the majority opinion.
  • The dissent argued that the court's ruling "threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation.
  • In the 2012 presidential election, super PACs have played a major role, spending more than the candidates' election campaigns in the Republican primaries.
  • John Paul Stevens wrote a dissenting opinion, arguing that the Court's ruling "threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation. "

• Conference Committee

  • Thus most major bills become law through using a conference committee.
  • In order to conclude its business, a majority of both House and Senate delegations to the conference must indicate their approval by signing the conference report.
  • House rules require that one conference meeting be open to the public, unless the house, in open session, votes that a meeting will be closed to the public.
  • If the objection was well founded, the Presiding Officer ruled and a Senator could appeal the ruling of the Chair.
  • If the appeal was sustained by a majority of the Senate, it had precedential effect, eroding the rule on the scope of conference committees.

• The Goals of Economic Policy

  • There are four major goals of economic policy: stable markets, economic prosperity, business development and protecting employment.
  • Policy is generally directed to achieve four major goals: stabilizing markets, promoting economic prosperity, ensuring business development, and promoting employment.
  • A rule-based policy can be more credible, because it is more transparent and easier to anticipate.
  • Examples of rule-based policies are fixed exchange rates, interest rate rules, the stability and growth pact and the Golden Rule.
  • One of the major goals of economic policy is to promote economic growth.

• Party Leadership in the House

  • The Majority Leader's duties and prominence varies depending upon the style of the Speaker of the House and the political climate within the majority caucus.
  • The Speaker in the United States, by tradition, is the head of the majority party in the House of Representatives, outranking the Majority Leader.
  • They also chair the majority party's steering committee in the House.
  • At other times, more junior members may be assigned to preside to give them experience with the rules and procedures of the House.
  • Explain in detail the power of the Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader and the Party Whip

• The Staff System

  • The various types of congressional staff are as follows: personal staff, who work for individual members of Congress; committee staff, who serve either the majority or minority on congressional committees; leadership staff, who work for the speaker, majority and minority leaders, and the majority and minority whips; institutional staff, who include the majority and minority party floor staff and non-partisan staff; and the support agency staff, who are the non-partisan employees of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and Government Accountability Office (GAO).
  • Majority and minority members hire their own staff, with the exception of two committees in each house: the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the House, and the Select Committee on Ethics and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the Senate.
  • The Russell Senate Office Building houses several Congressional staff members, including those on the United States Senate Committees on Armed Services, Rules and Administration, Veterans' Affairs, and others.

• The Role of Third Parties

  • American politics operate as a two-party system, and third party candidates do not play a major role in elections.
  • Due in part to an agreement by the two major party candidates to allow him to appear in televised debates, Perot received 19% of the popular vote that year.
  • American politics operate on a two-party system, meaning that two major political parties dominate voting in most elections and consequently dominate elected offices.
  • In modern United States elections, the two major parties are the Democratic and Republican parties.
  • (as they have been in other democratic countries), including the country's election structure, ballot rules, and debate rules.