ABSTRACT
It is generally recognised that ‘government by the majority’ is not the whole of what should be understood by ‘democracy’. Democracy arose in connection with ‘natural rights’, and was generally accompanied by some ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’. Although the philosophy of natural rights is now discredited, we still think that democracy requires abstention from certain exercises of power against individuals and minority groups. In the American Constitution, the provision about ‘due process’ expresses a part of this point of view: an individual cannot be imprisoned or executed unless a court of law decides that he has done something previously declared by the legislature to be a crime. This is a very important matter; execution or imprisonment by executive decree is one of the chief weapons of tyranny. Again, the Constitution safeguards religious freedom, as well as freedom of speech and of the press. Such limitation of the power of government over individuals is an important aspect of what most people understand by ‘democracy’.
