When do limits on majorities enhance democratic rule, and when do they undermine it? Constraints on majorities are, of course, essential to modern democracy. Liberal democracy is not simply a system of majority rule: It combines majority rule and protection of minority rights. To prevent temporary majorities from depriving individuals of fundamental rights or legislating political minorities out of existence, democracies must ensure that some domains remain, in the words of U.S. Supreme Court justice Robert H. Jackson, "beyond the reach of majorities."1
But constraints on electoral majorities also subvert democracy. In Thailand, an unelected Senate prevented the Move Forward Party from forming a government despite its landslide victory in the 2023 parliamentary elections; in Chile, appointed senators allowed conservatives to control the Senate in the 1990s even though Chileans elected center-left majorities; and in the United States, the Electoral College has allowed candidates who won fewer votes than their opponent to claim the presidency twice this century.
