Pure majoritarian democracy enables the very arbitrary power republicans oppose

Evidence

In an early work, unpublished during his lifetime, the great historian F. W. Maitland told a story of the rise of the democratic emphasis which reinforces this claim nicely. He argued that the rising commitment to democracy from the seventeenth century on—the conventional theory of government, as he described it—was motivated by a concern to remove arbitrary power from the state, but that it tended to lead, ultimately, to an affirmation of majoritarian democracy which was inconsistent with such a concern. … If the conventional theory leads to an ideally perfect democracy—a state in which all that the majority wishes to be law, and nothing else, is law—then it leads to a form of government under which the arbitrary exercise of power is most certainly possible. Thus, as it progresses, the conventional theory seems to lose its title to be called the doctrine of civil liberty, for it ceases to be a protest against arbitrary forms of restraint. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 163

Categorization

• QUESTION: Raises a follow-up: how do republican institutions guard against majority tyranny without falling into populist affirmation? Relevant to designing positive, non-enemy-based civic structures.
• XREF: connects to: Arendtian direct democracy can itself produce majority tyranny that republicans oppose — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 77; Republicans held that subjection to another’s arbitrary will itself constitutes unfreedom — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 1209; Republican freedom depends on laws that constrain power without creating new domination — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 196 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Direct democracy can itself enable the tyranny of a majority #corroborates (1.00) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 77
• Republican freedom depends on laws that constrain power without creating new domination #corroborates (0.75) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 196
• Republicans held that subjection to another’s arbitrary will itself constitutes unfreedom #corroborates (0.70) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 1209