Page 281 - DPOL202_COMPARATIVE_POLITICS_AND_GOVERNMENT_ENGLISH

Comparative Politics and Government

Notes A majority of the electors would always have a majority of the representatives; but a minority of the
electors would always have a minority of the representatives. Man for man they would be as fully
represented as the majority, and unless they are, there is not equal government, but a government of
inequality and privilege— contrary to all just government, but above all contrary to the principle of
democracy which professes equality as its very root and foundation.”
It is not an easy job to offer a standard and precise definition of the term ‘minority,’ because the very
nature of this problem differs from place to place and from people to people. A minority means a
group of persons numerically smaller than others. Such a simple definition fails to carry any definite
sense for the obvious reason that it does not specify the actual condition or conditions relating to the
factor of numerical dimension. Thus, a better definition of this term shall be to treat the minorities “as
groups held together by the ties of common descent, language or religious faith and feeling themselves
different in these respects from the majority of the inhabitants of a given political entity.” It is also
stated. “The term ‘minority’ includes only those non-dominant groups in a population which possess
and wish to preserve stable ethnic, religious or linguistic traditions or characteristics markedly different
from those of the rest of the population.”

“In any really equal democracy, every or any section would be represented, not
disproportionately but proportionately.

For the sake of convenience, in matters relating to the political study, one may say that a minority
means a group of persons whose race, or language, or religion is different from that of the persons in
majority. The factor of subjective consideration is inapplicable in this direction. Thus, a group of
people feeling like a minority does not constitute a minority. There can be no factor like choice or
will, though the factor of force (as in the case of the Negroes in the United States) cannot be entirely
ruled out. It is necessary that the people in minority should be concerned with preserving their
separate identity and thus not be willing to have their assimilation with the people in majority. For
this reason, the depressed classes of India should not, and cannot, betaken as belonging to the
minorities, since they donot wish to preserve their characteristics which are markedly different from
those of the rest of the population. “Rather, they like to be assimilated with the majority, but are
prevented from doing so by the opposition from within the ranks of the majority party.”
It is now widely believed that the minorities should be adequately represented. This is possible only
when some special devices are adopted. We may refer to certain special methods evolved for the sake
of minority representation:
1. Second Ballot System: Under this system, it is required that the successful candidate must
secure more than 50 per cent of the votes polled. If no candidate secures absolute majority, the
election is cancelled and only two candidates (who had secured highest votes in the cancelled
election) are allowed to contest. The result is that the successful candidate wins absolute majority.
Such a method slightly betters the position of the minorities inasmuch as they may have a
political bargain with one of the candidates before giving their choice in his favour.
2. Alternative Vote System: It is also known as the contingent or preferential vote system. Here
single transferable vote system is used whereby electoral quota is obtained by dividing the total
number of valid votes by 1 + 1 = 2 and then adding the figure of 1 to the quotient in order to see
that the successful candidate gains absolute majority either in the first count or by the transfer
of votes according to subsequent preferences of the voters. The voters are given a ballot paper
having names and symbols of the candidates printed on the left side with blank columns on the
right side. He has to show his order of preferences for candidates by putting the figures of 1, 2,
3, etc. in the blank columns. The candidate securing votes upto the figure of electoral quota or
more than that is declared successful, otherwise the candidate with least number of votes is
eliminated and his votes are transferred to other candidates in accordance with the order of
preferences given in the ballot papers. This process continues until one candidate secures absolute

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