United Nations Forum on Minorities and Political Participation Discussion Paper on Obstacles to the Effective Political Participation of Minorities Dr Fernand de Varennes 2004 Linguapax Laureate Senior Researcher, European Centre on Minority Issues, Flensburg, Germany School of Law, Murdoch University, Australia Minorities are vastly underrepresented politically in most countries. Even when they are able to participate in political life, minorities are often constantly outvoted by the majority in public decision-making, especially in ethnically sensitive issues. To put it in the words of Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America, minorities are subject to the tyranny of the majority. [SLIDE] Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: …all parties are willing to recognize the rights of the majority, because they all hope at some time to be able to exercise them to their own advantage. The majority in that country, therefore, exercise a prodigious actual authority, and a power of opinion which is nearly as great; no obstacles exist which can impede or even retard its progress, so as to make it heed the complaints of those whom it crushes upon its path.… If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be attributed to the omnipotence of the majority, which