Tyranny of the Majority : Fundamental Fairness in Representative Democracy [Paperback]

Lani Guinier (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0029131693 | ISBN-13: 978-0029131695 | Publication Date: February 1, 1995

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

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

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
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Here they are--the law-review articles that last year cost Guinier her chance to become the government's top civil rights enforcer. In their unexpurgated plenitude (the footnotes constitute one-third of their bulk, though), these sources of the quotations that the media echo chamber amplified into the "quota queen" charge afford a two-step entry into Guinier's world of voting theory. The first, pronounced in "The Triumph of Tokenism," is Guinier's attack on the huge increase in the number of elected minority officials since the Voting Rights Act passed as a specious advance (within this critique comes her position on the celebrated question of an official's "authenticity"). The second step is made up of the remedies--especially cumulative voting (in which each voter casts more than one vote) and multiple-seat districts--that she argues will better represent minority interests. Unfortunately, Guinier nowhere defines those interests, which will probably lose her many a general reader. Still, everyone knows, or thinks they know, what racism, Guinier's raw main subject, is. It is repeatedly implicated in such crash-and-burn spectacles as Guinier's failed nomination, and the visceral feelings that nomination evoked guarantee considerable interest in these articles. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (February 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0029131693
• ISBN-13: 978-0029131695
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #526,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "To be great is to be misunderstood", October 24, 1998

By 

Joseph M. Burello ([e-mail]) (Tempe, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tyranny of the Majority : Fundamental Fairness in Representative Democracy (Paperback)

A classic example of how well thought out arguements are all to often misunderstood because of today's desire for the one-liner and the soundbite.

6 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too much legalese, some good points, October 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Tyranny of the Majority : Fundamental Fairness in Representative Democracy (Paperback)

Guinier's essays that evoked so much controversy when she was offered as a nominee for a key position in the Clinton administration. The introduction is more thought-provoking than the essays are, as the latter tend to get boggled down in legalese and political theory. At least the label of Quota Queen should be rejected by this book which gives an accurate portrait of his views rather than a conservative-media-biased one.