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the Founders intended, however, and by the 1820s, most
states had switched to the present system of popular voting
for electors. However, the Constitution never has
said, and still does not specify, how states must choose
their electors.
It may sound anti-American to question the merits
of the current conception of democracy, so it is worth
emphasizing that the Founders did not originally design
the government to be responsive to the will of the people.
The federal government was one of limited and
enumerated powers, and democracy was a mechanism
for choosing who held those powers and for making it
relatively easy to replace them if they abused their office
and its powers.
The majoritarian vision of democratic government
favors those who have the majority’s support. A publicinterest
viewpoint might approve of favoring the poor,
for example, or the working class, and might approve of
imposing costs to pay for these favors on robber barons,
or the rich, or those who smoke cigarettes. Nevertheless,
when the government favors some groups over others, it
incites political competition to be in a group that gets government
favors and to avoid being in a group that pays for
them. That competition leads to cronyism.
Nobody knows what popular opinion is before people
express their opinions, which gives everyone an incentive
to argue that their interests are congruent with popular
opinion when the government operates under the political
philosophy of majoritarianism. People have a strong
incentive to argue for their own interests, but at best a
weak incentive to argue for the public interest, and arguing
for the public interest displaces an opportunity to
MAJORITARIANISM 63