Question: How does a society effectively act according to the will of the majority? Who is the majority? What challenges does a government face in understanding the will of the majority?
In section 97, Locke asserts that by joining a society, every man agrees to submit to the will of the majority, or else the original agreement to join the society means nothing. However, how can this be achieved if the will of the majority is not known?
In the United States, the problem of a silent majority has become more prevalent in recent years. A silent majority can be interpreted in two ways; people who do not act or people who do not have the power to act. When citizens relinquish or lose their right to vote – the best way we as people have to tell those in power what we want – they relinquish far more autonomy than what is outlined in Locke’s Treatise.
This calls into question who is actually considered part of the “majority”. The ability to chose whether to join a society at the time that Locke wrote the Treatise was heavily dependent on whether someone was considered human or property. As noted in the sections On Slavery and On the State of War it was lawful to enslave people that had initiated a state of war against you. As Locke believed that it was the duty of the Europeans to cultivate the land for the betterment of humankind, it was an easy justification to make. The Natives were not using the land properly in Locke’s eyes, so the Europeans were justified in taking the land from them, and again justified in enslaving them when the Native people resisted this invasion. Enslaved people do not enjoy the same rights and freedoms as the other members of society.
Similarly, the disenfranchised and disillusioned citizens of the United States do not enjoy the same rights and freedoms as those who are in power. People in the United States can use and have used Locke’s justification while collecting power and wealth among a small number of people. The founding fathers did so when creating the electoral college, which silenced (and continues to silence) the voice of the simple majority in the interest of appeasing the “elite”. In the Jim Crow era, literacy tests were used to disenfranchise those who did not have access to formal education. Today, wealth inequality is a prominent tool. In 2016, the top 1% held a little under 40% of the total share of wealth in America (these are the same people that support harsher restrictions on EBT or unemployment benefits to prevent the “wrong people” from receiving them). In a political system rife with campaigns driven by the highest donor, money is power. A simple majority means nothing when someone else can give you a million dollars. These are all examples of the belief that because a person will not use something, whether it be money or the right to vote, “properly”, it is okay to take it from them altogether.In Locke’s time, the majority referred to educated, landowning white men. Today it’s not so different. In presidential elections, less than two-thirds of the voting population participates. In mid-term elections, voter turnout is less than 50 percent. Beyond people who choose not to vote, there are populations of people in the US or under the authority of the US government who are unable to vote dor a variety of reasons. Around 2.5% of the total voting age population is disenfranchised due to felony charges, in addition to those currently in jail (even without charges) that are prevented from voting due to logistical challenges. Additionally, while residents of US territories are US citizens, they are only allowed to vote in presidential primaries. If someone is unable to vote, chooses not to vote, or is unaware of their ability to vote, they can never be a part of the majority, even though they are expected to submit to the will of that same majority.
Citations
King, Ledyard. “Puerto Rico: At the Center of a Political Storm, but Can Its Residents Vote for President?” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 7 May 2019, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/05/07/why-puerto-rico-residents-cant-vote-even-though-they-are-us-citizens/1119543001/.
Leiserson, Greg, et al. “The Distribution of Wealth in the United States and Implications for a Net Worth Tax.” Washington Center for Equitable Growth, Equitable Growth, 21 Mar. 2019, https://equitablegrowth.org/the-distribution-of-wealth-in-the-united-states-and-implications-for-a-net-worth-tax/.
Locke, John. Second Treatise of Government. Awnsham Churchill, 1689.
McDonald, Michael. “National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789-Present.” United States Elections Project, UF Department of Political Science, 2018, http://www.electproject.org/national-1789-present.
Uggen, Christopher, et al. “6 Million Lost Voters: State-Level Estimates of Felony Disenfranchisement, 2016.” The Sentencing Project, The Sentencing Project, 6 Oct. 2016, https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/6-million-lost-voters-state-level-estimates-felony-disenfranchisement-2016/.
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