Author(s)

Peter Emerson

The de Borda Institute, Belfast, UK.

The court of law is often adversarial; the more usual question, after all, is binary: guilty or not guilty? The parliament which makes the law, however, need not subject complex questions to dichotomous judgements, or a series of dichotomies: indeed, the corresponding debate should consider all relevant options on an equal basis. Accordingly, this article questions the propriety of a majoritarian polity, considers a less adversarial voting procedure, and contemplates a more inclusive political structure, in order then to argue that human rights legislations should be far more specific on the subject of democratic rights. Such a development may depend less upon the politician and more upon the lawyer.

Consensus; Power-Sharing; Modified Borda Count

P. Emerson, "Democratic Rights: Decision-Making by Law Makers and Law Enforcers," Beijing Law Review, Vol. 4 No. 2, 2013, pp. 77-81. doi: 10.4236/blr.2013.42010.