Source: EconLog
by Pierre Lemieux
“Winning an election with 50% plus a few (or many) voters does not imply the normative conclusion that the winner is justified to impose policies that significantly harm the other 49% (or fewer). In a free society, the political majority rule has three main justifications. First, it allows to change the rulers when their exercise of power is repudiated by a significant proportion of the population—to throw out the rascals. Second, it represents an approximation of unanimity, which is ultimately the only normative justification of democracy. … Third, as argued by Buchanan and Tullock, an approximation of unanimity is necessary only to prevent holdouts from blocking in bad faith widely desired change. One implication of this approach is that a president elected with 50.1% of the popular vote (the tally of the November 5 election as of November 14) does not acquire a license to kill or even to do everything he may have promised.” (11/15/24)
https://www.econlib.org/fifty-percent-plus-one-is-not-a-license-to-kill/