"Overwhelming" majority
"Overwhelming" majority
(OP)
Consider this an informal poll.
Yesteray I was listening to a news article in which it referred to an overwhelming majority of the respondants to a poll. Later, it assigned a number which was 64%. I thought, "majority, yes...overwhelming, nope."
(Full disclosure: They were discussing politics and evidently pushing a point of view)
To me, an overwhleming majority would be circa 80%.
To the rest of you, when you hear the nonprecise term "overwhelming majority," what's the range that pops into your minds?
Yesteray I was listening to a news article in which it referred to an overwhelming majority of the respondants to a poll. Later, it assigned a number which was 64%. I thought, "majority, yes...overwhelming, nope."
(Full disclosure: They were discussing politics and evidently pushing a point of view)
To me, an overwhleming majority would be circa 80%.
To the rest of you, when you hear the nonprecise term "overwhelming majority," what's the range that pops into your minds?
--------------------
Bring back the HP-15
www.hp15c.org
--------------------





RE: "Overwhelming" majority
The key word here is "nonprecise". The term is also relative. If your majorities are normally in the region of 50%-51%, then 64% is very high.
67% (2/3).
JHG
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
I aree that the 'overwhelming' adjective is often too liberally applied.
Note that there are many different 'majorities' in politics(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majority).
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
I guess it could be overwhelming if either: You are pushing forward a policy that was not popular before, or if you were worried some unpleasantness may be visited upon you. If 60% of people wanted me dead, that would be overwhelming!
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that, but the really great make you
feel that you, too, can become great."
*Mark Twain
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
At what point between 51% and 100% does it change from narrow to comfortable to overwhelming to total?
Just sounds like some journo or party putting some spin on the numbers.
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
If I say that Team A won the basketball game with 64% of the points, was it an overwhelming win? If I say that Team A won the basketball game 64-36, was it an overwhelming win?
Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
Wow, I can't believe my own grammar, usage and typing on the last post! "Elections are one"???
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
"If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut."
-- by Albert Einstein
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
I also suspect that the use the term "overwhelming" is itself an indication of the inherent bias of the person doing the reporting. Now, if the poll itself were also biased, then I can foresee a 60% "AGREE" result of a biased poll being called overwhelming, whereas a non-biased poll may only provide a 45% result.
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
Then I read the next comment and thought that that was pretty reasonable too but a few moments later and a few responses later and I have overwhelmed my orginal emotive responses with a bit of rationale:
It's all very well saying that in politics 64% is overwhelming but most of the populace listening are not politicians and are bombarded with statistics on every conceivable subject, most of which have different "benchmarks" against which to levy the tag "overwhelming".
In the context of one politician talking to another (or one journalist interviewing another for nothing better to do) the term is probably admissible, since they themselves will understand bpoth the meaning and the attitude behind the speaker: but when aired before the general public, not all so politically savvy, the term is not acceptable and could be construed as misrepresentation, but then, that's what we expect of politicians, so who is fooled?
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
Best regards,
Matthew Ian Loew
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
UK political parties usually get into power with much less than 50% of the popular vote (it's a consequence of a "first past the post" system, and of having more than two serious national political parties). For example, the Labour "Landslide" victory of 1997 (in which they won 63.6% of the seats in the House of Commons) was achieved with just 43.2% of the popular vote.
Under this system, if one party managed to poll 64% of the popular vote, it's highly unlikely that any of the other parties would win a single seat - an outcome which would be truly "overwhelming".
A.
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas
"All the world is a Spring"
All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
Simply put, if an event far exceeds the expectations, it becomes overwhelming, whatever the count.
Ciao.
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
Personally, I thought 51% was just squeaking by. It's certainly not a mandate.
My view on whether a majority is "overwhewlming" is, with all other things being equal, if the two opposing sides were to resort to physical violence rather than counting votes, the side with the "overwhelming majority" would easily prevail.
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
Norm
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
What is a "mandate"
A check of the dictionary provides the following:
Overwhelming
:tending or serving to overwhelm <an overwhelming majority>; also : EXTREME, GREAT <overwhelming indifference>
Mandate
:an authorization to act given to a representative <accepted the mandate of the people>
Per the dictionary, overwhelming implies "extreme" or "great".
Yet mandate merely means one is authorized, or in other words, one was elected - PERIOD, with no implication of margine of the win.
RE: "Overwhelming" majority
To me, it's a matter of context.
If a victorious candidate claims the margin of his victory has given him a mandate (in this context, a *clear* authorization to act as he sees fit), then I believe he'd better have a greater margin of victory than two percentage points. That's only one percentage point better than a tie. There's nothing extreme or great about that majority. I'm sure in many elections those two percentage points could go either way, based on the weather's influence on voter turnout.
Mandate, when used in that context, does carry an implication of the margine of the win.
RE: "Overwhelming" majority