51 percent

alternative 51%

1. USidiomaticA narrow or bare majority.

   But in a political system, everything tends to be a yes-or-no decision; if 51 percent vote yes, it's yes.

   1975, Milton Friedman, There's no such thing as a free lunch

   2 more examples

   Majority rule, loosely put, is the proposition that 51 percent of the people should be able to get whatever they want.

   1995, Lani Guinier, The tyranny of the majority

   It was he who argued that the tyranny imposed by 51 percent of the people was every bit as threatening to democracy as the royal tyranny the colonists had fought to leave behind.

   1999, K. C. Cole, The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty, page 100