the traditional defence of democratic government tells us that the opinion of the minority does have some effect. the function of the minority in the legislative assembly, it is side, is to voice their opposition, to criticize, to show the possibility of an alternative policy, so that the dominant opinion should be required to produce a reasoned case for its alleged superiority to the minority view . An essential feature of democratic government, the argument proceeds, is that it is government through discussion, by persuasion instead of by force. when the discussion has gone as far as is usefully can, and some are still unpersuaded, a vote is taken and the majority decision followed , again instead of resorting to force; 'we count heads instead of breaking them' voting is, in a sense, a confession of relative failure , the ideal being to reach unanimous agreement , but since that is unattainable the second best course is to follow the majority view