In a group, the majority is the group with the largest number of members.
Majority is the quality of greater . In a set of people or objects , the majority will be the group that has a higher number of members or members .
For example: “The majority of Americans like American football” , “The majority of voters have expressed support for this government” , “By decision of the majority of the residents, the new theater has been named the Teatro of the Sun.”
Examples of majorities
Surveys or questionnaires are a good mechanism to understand the notion of majority. If a consulting firm conducts research to find out what season of the year is preferred by the inhabitants of a city and, out of 10,000 respondents, 8,000 respond that they prefer spring, it can be said that the majority of people opt for spring.
Let's look at another example. In a soccer team, there are eleven starting or starting players. Of them, eight usually kick the ball with their right leg and three with their left. It can be stated, therefore, that the majority of the players on said team are right-handed.
The concept of majority is important in elections.
The concept in politics
The concept of majority is also used to name the greatest number of agreeable or positive votes in a vote . In a parliamentary session where the construction of a bridge over a river is debated, seventy deputies vote in favor of the project, fourteen against and five abstain. The initiative, therefore, was approved by the majority, since only a minority opposed it.
It must be stated that in any vote there are different types of majority. Within the chambers of any State, it is common for one class or another to be requested to be able to approve a topic, depending on its importance:
- Simple majority . It is what determines that an issue is accepted if it has the favorable vote of the entity's attendees who have attended the vote.
- Absolute majority . This is what establishes that a decision is approved as long as it has the support of the majority of the members that make up an organization and not just those who attended the meeting.
- Special majority . This other type of majority is what dictates that an issue will be approved as long as it has the vote in favor of three-quarters of the members who are part of the body or organization in question.
- Qualified majority . In this case, we would have to say that this is the one that considers that for an issue to be accepted it must have the “yes” of two quarters of the members who have attended the assembly or of the members of the organization.
In the case of Spain, for example, within the Congress of Deputies it is established that very important issues such as the reforms of the 1978 Constitution or the Chamber's own regulations must have an absolute majority .
It should be noted that the age of majority , finally, is linked to what is established by law so that a person has full rights to themselves and their property.