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Concept
Majority rule
Summary
Majority rule is the principle that the group that has the most supporters gets its way. A majority is more than half of the voters involved, and rule by such a majority is thought to be to the benefit of more than rule by less than half (a mere minority) would be. Majority rule is the binary decision rule most often used in decision-making bodies, including many legislatures of democratic nations. Where no one party wins a majority of the seats in a legislature, the majority of legislators that wields power is partly composed of members of other parties in support.
Where only two candidates are competing for a single seat, one or the other will take a majority of valid votes. But in situations where more than two are competing, simple plurality is sometimes considered as close as possible to majority in which case having plurality is enough to be elected, while in some systems such as Instant-runoff voting special efforts are made to ensure that the winner is in fact the majority choice even where three or more are competing for the same spot.
Where multiple members are elected in a district as may happen under Proportional representation or Plurality block voting, no candidate may receive a majority of votes cast. Under block voting, the winners, usually of just one party, often have received only a minority of the votes cast. Under proportional representation the combined vote tallies of the successful candidates make up a majority of valid votes. And as such are thought to represent the will of more voters than candidates supported by just a minority of the voters.
One alternative to majority rule is plurality (First-past-the-post voting or FPTP). This is often used in elections with more than two candidates. In this case, the winner is the one with the most votes, whether or not that constitutes a majority.
Parliamentary rules may prescribe the use of a supermajoritarian rule under certain circumstances, such as the 60% filibuster rule to close debate in the US Senate.
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