When democracy and justice collide: which takes precedence?

Machjo

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 19, 2004
17,878
61
48
Ottawa, ON
Many in the West take democracy as a panacea for all our ills, ignoring that democracy is merey a reflection of the will of the majority, for good or bad.

Examples of democracy trumping justice abound:

Popular acceptance of slavery in Canadian history for a short time.

Popular support for the Nazy Party in Germany.

Popular indifference to forced residential schools in Canada.

Popular indifference to the forced relocation of some Innuit communities by the Canadian military during the Cold War to locations farther north.

Popular support for and even popular initiatives to intern Japanese Canadians and ban the learning of German and Italian, and discrimination against such Canadians.

Popular support for discriminatory lawsagainst linguisic minorities in Quebec.

The list can go on.

We can't even count on certain groups to defend themselves. As an example, some evangelical women in the West will vote in favour of banning the right of women to work so as to 'give more jobs to men so that they can earn money to support their families'!

Now we see something similar in Afghanistan, where the government wishes to grant men the right to rape women in marriage. Are we sure that all Afghan women wil oppose such a law? Many might, butjust like some evangelical women in the West, some others might even defend such a policy. I myself have witnessed certain women literally defend, in passionate debate! the right of men to have more than one wife, for example, on the gronds that it 'provides a social safety net for single mothers'! Culture is much more complicated than some give it credit for.

Will the war in Afghanistan possibly break our notion of democracy as a panacea? Will it challenge us to look beyond democracy to what is just, and possibly become bold enough to admit that sometimes the just cause is not always the democratic one?

And if so, how might this change our views of democracy and justice in future?