Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T06:41:25.233Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2021

William J. Bulman
Affiliation:
Lehigh University, Pennsylvania
Get access

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.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • 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 Dropbox

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 Dropbox.

  • 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
×