Majority decision-making involves coercion that must be minimized to protect freedom

Evidence

Director stated: “I am speaking of the ‘older kind of liberals.’ These people recognize that, while the democratic method is preferable to other alternative methods, nevertheless the majority decision involves a substantial amount of coercion; and it seems to me, as a consequence of that, if we are interested in maximizing individual freedom, we must keep those activities which are taken on the majority principle to a bare minimum and leave as much as possible—and to me that includes a great deal—to be decided by the voluntary decisions of individuals, singly or in relations with other individuals and groups” (p. 5). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1183

Categorization

• XREF: This is the foundational ‘older liberalism’ / anti-majority principle that threads through the neoliberal historiography; connects to Hayek’s ‘The Road to Serfdom’ and the MPS’s framing of freedom against democratic coercion. — connects to: Preventing the few from drowning out the many is anti-market — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 338; Sanctions designed for worst-case agents alienate the majority who comply voluntarily — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 1279