Most democrats agree that individual liberties and the opposition’s right to fair competition must be placed beyond the reach of majorities. All democracies must therefore be tempered by a degree of counter-majoritarianism. But democracies must also empower majorities. Indeed, a political system that does not grant majorities considerable say cannot be called a democracy. This is the danger of counter-majoritarianism: rules designed to fetter majorities may allow partisan minorities to consistently thwart and even rule over majorities. As the eminent democratic theorist Robert Dahl warned,
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