Contemporary despotism and democracy discussions

This study examines the problem of des majority despotism tı created by the reduction of the principle of popular sovereignty, the basic value of modern democracy, to the will of the majority. The manifestation of popular sovereignty in today's representative democracies is that the majority is the party that gets the vote. The understanding that the majority can make more accurate decisions by promoting the public interest may in some cases lead to despotic attitudes in democracies. So much so that the overwhelming majority that does not reflect the whole population can violate minority rights. The rights, freedoms and demands of the few people in the society can be neglected. In this study, the differences between the understanding of pluralism and majoritarian democracy and their contributions to democracy will be discussed. Rousseau's general will theory was reduced to the will of the majority, focusing on governments away from democracy. The pluralist approach, which is a kind of reaction to the majorityist approach, adopts the idea that the nation is composed not only of the majority but of all the groups that make up the society. The will of such a nation will emerge with the reconciliation of all groups. In order to achieve this, the mechanisms envisaged by the pluralist understanding, such as sharing power, protecting minority rights and making political decisions by consensus, have been discussed within the scope of the subject. Keywords: Majoritarian Democracy, General Will, Majority Despotism, Pluralist Democracy.