Dictionary

supermajoritarian en · ADJ

Etymology

From supermajority + -arian.

Meanings

1. Supporting the requirement that proponents of a position have a supermajority if they wish to overrule the minority.
   • These supermajoritarian proposals mark a significant departure from our normal majoritarian processes and would often permit minority political interests in one House to thwart the electorate's most recent expression of support for the policies offered by a majority of the representatives it had elected. 1987, United States Congress, House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Monopolies and Commercial Law, Proposed Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendments: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Monopolies and Commercial Law of the Committee on the Judiciary, One Hundredth Congress, First Session, October 15, November 17, and November 18, 1987, Volume 4, p. 611
   • Moreover, many things that win supermajoritarian approval do so through what John Rawls called an overlapping consensus and what Cass Sunstein calls incompletely theorized agreements. 2015, James E. Fleming, Fidelity to Our Imperfect Constitution, page 53:
   • The core of Ackerman's idea is to offer the Executive substantial emergency power in exchange for the political safeguard of a supermajoritarian escalator. 2009, David Dyzenhaus, Civil Rights and Security, page 146:

Forms

Deriveds

supermajoritarianism