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8 - Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2021

William J. Bulman
Affiliation:
Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
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Summary

The Conclusion demonstrates the global-historical and interdisciplinary importance of early modern developments in the history of majority rule. It sketches the modern history of majoritarian decision-making in the elected assemblies of the United States, the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and the postcolonial polities that emerged from their empires and the tumult of the two world wars. It then explains the basic ways in which the history of the rise of the majority in early modern Britain and its empire recasts majority rule as a political problem in a way that has important implications for political science, political theory, and wider public debate. It shows that all of the basic maladies identified today in debates over the state of representative democracy were present, identified, and discussed in the seventeenth century. In particular, contemporaries experienced and described the threat that majority rule posed to the role of rational, informed argument and inclusion in national decision-making.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Conclusion
  • William J. Bulman, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
  • Book: The Rise of Majority Rule in Early Modern Britain and Its Empire
  • Online publication: 22 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108909648.009
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  • Conclusion
  • William J. Bulman, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
  • Book: The Rise of Majority Rule in Early Modern Britain and Its Empire
  • Online publication: 22 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108909648.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • William J. Bulman, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
  • Book: The Rise of Majority Rule in Early Modern Britain and Its Empire
  • Online publication: 22 March 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108909648.009
Available formats
×