Democracy or Liberty?

http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4933

Our founders intended for us to have a limited republican form of government where rights precede government and there is rule of law. Citizens, as well as government officials, are accountable to the same laws. Government intervenes in civil society only to protect its citizens against force and fraud but does not intervene in the cases of peaceable, voluntary exchange. By contrast, in a democracy, the majority rules either directly or through its elected representatives. The law is whatever the government deems it to be. Rights may be granted or taken away...

...In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison wrote, "Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority." That's another way of saying that one of the primary dangers of majority rule is that it confers an aura of legitimacy and respectability on acts that would otherwise be deemed tyrannical. Liberty and democracy are not synonymous and could actually be opposites.

I love the seeming contradiction of the title - most people would assume that democracy = liberty. We talk about the two together as if they were inseperable. Unfortunately, most of us are "trained, taught, and educated" that democracy, in and of itself, is the highest form of government possible. It's what we advocate as the cure for oppressed people everywhere - if only all governments would abandon tyranny and become democratic, then their citizens would truly be free...

Without an understanding of the true nature of rights and principles, democracy is nothing more than tyranny of the majority. Freedom is at risk in a pure democracy, because the rights of the minority are forfeit - and every one of us is a minority in one way or another. The smallest minority is the individual. The founders knew this and attempted to create a system where the voice of the people could be heard, while preserving the rights of the individual.

It amazes me how we tout democracy as a panacea for the world's ills, without any mention of the need for the proper constitution and rule of law to protect the minority in any society. But knowing the quality of education that I and so many others have received regarding the proper role of government, I shouldn't be that surprised.

(see principle 12)