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Unanimity is complete agreement
Agreement

Agreement may refer to:* Agreement , cross-reference between parts of a phrase* Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law* Contract, enforceable in a court of law...
 by everyone. When unanimous, everybody is of same mind and acting together as one. Many groups consider unanimous decisions a sign of agreement, solidarity, and unity. Unanimity may be assumed explicitly after a unanimous vote
Voting

Voting is a method for a Group such as a meeting or an Constituency to decision making or express an opinion ? often following discussions, debates or election campaigns....
 or implicitly by a lack of objections.

tice varies as to whether a vote can be considered unanimous if some voter abstains
Abstention

Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot....
.






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Unanimity is complete agreement
Agreement

Agreement may refer to:* Agreement , cross-reference between parts of a phrase* Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law* Contract, enforceable in a court of law...
 by everyone. When unanimous, everybody is of same mind and acting together as one. Many groups consider unanimous decisions a sign of agreement, solidarity, and unity. Unanimity may be assumed explicitly after a unanimous vote
Voting

Voting is a method for a Group such as a meeting or an Constituency to decision making or express an opinion ? often following discussions, debates or election campaigns....
 or implicitly by a lack of objections.

Voting

Practice varies as to whether a vote can be considered unanimous if some voter abstains
Abstention

Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot....
. Robert's Rules of Order
Robert's Rules of Order

Robert's Rules of Order is the informal short title of a book containing rules of order intended to be adopted for use by a deliberative assembly....
 allows unanimity even with abstentions, equating "unanimous consent" with "silent consent", i.e. with no objections raised. In contrast, a United Nations Security Council resolution
United Nations Security Council Resolution

A United Nations Security Council Resolution is a United Nations resolution voted on by the fifteen members of the United Nations Security Council; the United Nations organization charged with "primary responsibility for the maintenance of...
 is not considered "unanimous" if a member abstains. In the European Union
European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 European Union member state, located primarily in Europe. It was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community....
, the Treaty of Amsterdam introduced the concept of "constructive abstention", where a member can abstain in a vote where unanimity is required without thereby blocking the success of the vote. This is intended to allow states to symbolically withhold support while not paralysing decision-making.

Dictatorships

The legitimacy supposedly established by unanimity has been used by dictatorial regimes in an attempt to gain support for their position. Participants in a legislature may be coerced or intimidated into supporting the position of a dictator, with the legislature becoming little more than a rubber stamp
Rubber stamp (politics)

A rubber stamp, as a list of political metaphors, refers to a person or institution with de jure considerable formal power but little de facto power, one that rarely disagrees with more powerful organs....
 for a more powerful authority.

Single-party state
Single-party state

A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election....
s can restrict nominees to one per seat in elections and use compulsory voting
Compulsory voting

Compulsory voting requires electors to vote in elections or attend a polling place on voting day. With a secret ballot voters remain free to Spoilt vote or remove them from the polling booth, depending on the voting system....
 or electoral fraud
Electoral fraud

Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud tend to involve affecting vote counts to bring about a desired election outcome, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both....
 to create an impression of popular unanimity. The North Korean parliamentary elections, 1962
North Korean parliamentary elections, 1962

The third Supreme People's Assembly was elected on October 8, 1962. 383 deputies were elected....
 reported a 100% turnout
Turnout

Turnout may refer to:* Turnout , a rotation of the leg which comes from the hips, causing the knee and foot to turn outward, away from the center of the body...
 and a 100% vote for the Workers' Party of Korea
Workers' Party of Korea

The Workers? Party of Korea is the ruling party of the Democratic People?s Republic of Korea , commonly known as North Korea. It is also called the Korean Workers' Party ....
. 100% votes have also been claimed by Ahmed Sékou Touré
Ahmed Sékou Touré

Ahmed S?kou Tour? was an African political leader and president of the Republic of Guinea from 1958 to his death in 1984. Tour? was one of the primary Guinean nationalists involved in the liberation of the country from France....
 in Guinea
Guinea

Guinea, officially Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa formerly known as French Guinea. The country's current population is estimated at 10,211,437 ....
 in 1975 and 1982, Félix Houphouët-Boigny
Félix Houphouët-Boigny

F?lix Houphou?t-Boigny was the first List of heads of state of C?te d'Ivoire of C?te d'Ivoire. Originally a village chief, he worked as a doctor, an administrator of a plantation, and a union leader, before being elected to the Parliament of France and serving in a number of ministerial positions in the Government of France....
 in Côte d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire

, formerly Ivory Coast, officially the , is a country in West Africa. The government officially discourages the use of the name Ivory Coast in English, preferring the French name to be used in all languages ....
 in 1985, and Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003.A leading member of the revolutionary Ba'ath Party, which espoused secular pan-Arabism, economic modernization, and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to long-term power....
 in Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
 in 2002.

Juries

In criminal law
Criminal law

The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential for unique and often severe impositions as punishment for failure to comply....
 jury trial
Jury trial

A jury trial is a legal proceeding in which a jury either makes a decision or makes findings of fact which are then applied by a judge. It is be distinguished from a bench trial, in which a judge or panel of judges make all decisions....
s, many jurisdictions require the jury to reach a unanimous verdict. This is not so in civil law
Civil law

Civil law may refer to:*Civil law , a system of law based on the Corpus Juris Civilis*Civil law , a branch of common law dealing with disputes between individuals and/or organizations ...
 jury trials.

The United States Supreme Court ruled in Apodaca v. Oregon
Apodaca v. Oregon

Apodaca v. Oregon, is a United States Supreme Court case that established that although federal law required that federal juries must reach criminal verdicts unanimously, state juries may convict a defendant by less than unanimity....
 that the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution
Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which sets forth rights related to criminal prosecutions in federal courts....
 mandates unanimity in a federal court
United States federal courts

The United States federal courts comprises the Judiciary of government organized under the United States Constitution and Law of the United States of the federal government of the United States....
 jury trial; but that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-American Civil War Reconstruction Amendments that was first intended to secure the rights of former Slavery in the United States....
 does not require jury unanimity in state court
State court

In the United States, a state court has jurisdiction over disputes with some connection to a U.S. state. Cases are heard before and evidence is presented in a trial court, which is usually located in a courthouse in the county seat....
s. Notwithstanding this, many U.S. states do require jury unanimity; for example, article 21 of the Maryland Constitution
Maryland Constitution

The current Constitution of the State of Maryland, which was ratified by the people of the state on September 18, 1867, forms the basic law for the U.S....
's Declaration of Rights states:

In England and Wales
Jury (England and Wales)

In the law jurisdiction of England and Wales, there is a long tradition of jury trial that has evolved over centuries....
, since the Juries Act 1974, a verdict may be returned where not more than 2 jurors dissent.

See also

  • Consensus decision-making
    Consensus decision-making

    Consensus decision-making is a group decision making process that not only seeks the agreement of most participants, but also the resolution or mitigation of minority objections....
  • Majority
    Majority

    A majority, also known as a simple majority in the United States of America, is a subset of a group that is more than half of the entire group....