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POPPER'S PARADOX OF DEMOCRACY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2012

Bastiaan Rijpkema
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Extract

In a footnote to Chapter 7 of ‘The Open Society and Its Enemies’ Karl Popper describes what he calls the ‘Paradox of Democracy’: the possibility that a majority decides for a tyrant to rule. This is the lesser known paradox of the three to which he pays attention, the other two being the ‘paradox of freedom’ – total freedom leads to suppression of the weak by the strong – and the ‘paradox of tolerance’ – unlimited tolerance leads to the disappearance of tolerance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Think , Volume 11 , Issue 32 , Autumn 2012 , pp. 93 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2012

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References

Notes

1 The Open Society and Its Enemies (Routledge, 1995), 602–3Google Scholar.

2 Verteidigung der Demokratie’, in: Verteidigung der Demokratie: Abhandlungen zur Demokratietheorie (Mohr Siebeck, 2006), 237Google Scholar.

3 Popper 1995, 603.

4 De democratische Staat en de niet-democratische partijen [De Arbeiderspers, 1936]; see on this in detail: Cliteur and Rijpkema, ‘The Foundations of Militant Democracy’, in The State of Exception and Militant Democracy in a Time of Terror, eds, Ellian, and Molier, , Republic of Letters, forthcoming 2012Google Scholar.