30 ACUMEN • SPRING 2022 At a global moment when the resilience of modern democracies is being tested, William Bulman’s new book, The Rise of Majority Rule in Early Modern Britain and Its Empire, looks at a period in British history when unity in Parliament was abandoned for expediency. At the heart of the book is an examination of the historical shifts that led to the prevalence of what we take for granted now as a feature of democracy, the rule of the majority— specifically, the English Parliament move from consensus decision-making to majority voting. Bulman, professor of history, specializes in the period around the 17th-century English Division! CHR I S QU I RK Did the trend toward majority votes over consensus in England’s 17th-century Parliament sow seeds of potential discord in future democracies?
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