Link to share: https://hanglberger-manfred.de/en-true-democracy-or-dictatorship-of-the-majority.htm

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True Democracy or "Dictatorship of the Majority"?

Does the Catholic Church have similar problems with majority decisions
like some Islamic countries?

A form of government based on majority decisions is therefore not in itself a democracy, but can be a “dictatorship of the majority”!

In the democratic movements in some countries that have so far been governed in a very authoritarian way, one has the impression that large sections of the population do not want democracy, but a "dictatorship of a majority" over the minorities of their country.

This can be observed especially in some countries where a certain direction of Islam has a majority among the population.

A real democracy needs a constitution and an overall political system that also respects and protects the basic rights of minorities and women in the state.

The governments of the Western countries did not take this into account in an enough clearly differentiated way in their reactions to the political processes in the Orient.

It is not in order and politically unwise to recognize a new state structure in these countries as democratically legitimized only because it came about through majority decisions when these majority decisions declare injustice to be law - for example when it comes to votes on a constitution, which disregard the fundamental rights of minorities or equal rights for women in this state.

Perhaps it would be possible in the community of democratic countries that have formulated and are realizing also the protection of minorities on the basis of human rights - or at the United Nations - to formulate requirements for a democratic constitution by which a state may call itself truly democratic.

Calling a spade a spade!

It would be very important for public opinion-forming worldwide that politicians, journalists and other public figures of liberal states clearly state that some newly formed governments are not democracies but "dictatorships of majorities" - and that mere majority decisions are not yet as legitimation for an elected government if its constitutional foundations do not respect the fundamental rights of minorities and women of this people.

Many leaders of the Catholic Church have apparently not yet recognized this problem if they claim in an undifferentiated way that the Church is not a democracy.

Here too, unfortunately, “democracy” is understood to mean a “dictatorship of the majority”.
For fear of a "dictatorship of the majority," the Church leadership therefore clings convulsively to a monarchist-authoritarian system whose structural value system contradicts the message of the Gospels in many respects (personal responsibility, freedom of conscience, subsidiarity, ... ).

A state constitution, in which the basic rights for all people are clearly formulated, respected and protected, contains values that cannot be proven, that is, represent a kind of "faith". Because “values” can never be proven, but are always a kind of “belief”.

These fundamental values and the fundamental rights derived therefrom must not be called into question or abolished by majority decisions.

A separate state body, in Germany the Federal Constitutional Court, which, independently of other political bodies, is solely committed to the fundamental rights of the constitution, has the task of reviewing whether parliamentary majority decisions are in accordance with these basic values. Otherwise, majority decisions will be declared invalid.

Manfred Hanglberger (www.hanglberger-manfred.de)

Translated by: Ingeborg Schmutte

Link to share: https://hanglberger-manfred.de/en-true-democracy-or-dictatorship-of-the-majority.htm

More texts in English >>>

In addition to the above:
>>> Church and Democracy

>>> „Ganzheitlichkeit“: ein anderes Wort für „katholisch“

>>> „Katholisch“- ganzheitlich glauben

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