counter-majoritarian

A counter-majoritarian system sidelines the members most in touch with the median party voters.

Matthew Yglesias » The Road Not Taken 2009

We have an Upper House in this country that is counter-majoritarian in concept.

Eric L. Lewis: The Tyranny of the Minority 2010

IOW, any judicial system, and any method of interpretation, will inevitably reach counter-majoritarian results.

Balkinization 2007

It seems Justice Scalia, pehaps in the rush of belonging to so powerful a majority as the current one, has forgotten that his position, station and very life are arguably owed to persons who preserved the Court's independence during times when the views of an Antonin Scalia were decidedly counter-majoritarian.

Balkinization 2007

If our next president believes in "intelligent design" and that Darwin was demonstrably wrong, I will have to accept it as a defeat of the counter-majoritarian secular elite who have heretofore clung to the mechanisms of political power.

Balkinization 2007

Again, though, the primary problem is that the rule of law is often counter-majoritarian; the more accountable you make the judges, the more pressure will be brought to bear on them to rule in a popular fashion as opposed to upholding the rule ofÂlaw.

The Volokh Conspiracy » Anti-Anti-Sotomayor: 2009

Indeed, recognizing the court's counter-majoritarian function, they saw their proper role as protecting the "few" (meaning the elite) against the "many," conceived of as an undifferentiated mass of the non-elite who might threaten the elite through unchecked democracy.

Balkinization 2007

Again, though, the primary problem is that the rule of law is often counter-majoritarian; the more accountable you make the judges, the more pressure will be brought to bear on them to rule in a popular fashion as opposed to upholding the rule of law.

The Volokh Conspiracy » Anti-Anti-Sotomayor: 2009

As the former lord Chief Justice Lord Bingham candidly declared in 2005, since the European Human Rights Convention existed to protect vulnerable minorities who were sometimes disliked, resented or despised, it followed that it was an ‘intrinsically counter-majoritarian’ instrument.

'Rights'? Wrong! 2008

As the former lord Chief Justice Lord Bingham candidly declared in 2005, since the European Human Rights Convention existed to protect vulnerable minorities who were sometimes disliked, resented or despised, it followed that it was an ‘intrinsically counter-majoritarian’ instrument.

On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008