Tyranny of the Majority: Funamental Fairness in Representative Democracy

by Lani Guinier

Overview

At last...the public hearing she was denied...These essays reveal keen powers of analysis applied to some of the most obdurate problems that bedevil electoral politics. Anyone who cares about the mechanisms of democracy should be engaged by her tough-minded explorations. It doesn't matter where you think you stand: it's all here, to argue or agree with.
— Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Lani Guinier's fascinating book is a prophetic intervention into a public conversation we desperately need to rejuvenate. There is no doubt that her powerful voice will produce good consequences for our nation and world.
— Cornel West, Author of Race Matters
Intriguing and desperately needed...
— The San Francisco Chronicle

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780029131695
Publisher:	Free Press
Publication date:	02/01/1995
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lani Guinier was the first woman of color appointed to a tenured professorship at Harvard Law School in 1998. In the 1980s, she served as a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and was the Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights during the Carter Administration. She has published Becoming Gentlemen, Lift Every Voice, and The Miner’s Canary.

Editorial Reviews

Like most Americans, President Clinton hadn't read Guinier's controversial academic writings when he nominated her to the position of assistant attorney general for civil rights. Now, with the publication of this collection of essays, a larger reading audience will have an opportunity to learn more about her views on voting rights. Guinier discusses the dilemma facing a democracy when a minority's own interests are consistently blocked by an electoral majority. While espousing a notion that is as simple as Robert Fulghum's admonition that we take turns, she also proposes complex remedial alternatives ranging from interest-based electoral districts to cumulative voting. As with many collections of previously published writings, the individual chapters don't all fit together. This is a difficult and controversial book, full of murky ideas and writing, but it should be as widely read as possible because the success of our democracy requires the discussion of ideas.-- Jerry E. Stephens, U.S. Court of Appeals Lib., Oklahoma City

Library Journal