But with the EU referendum, a Conservative majority government may feel emboldened to have its own way.
The majority of Americans may feel that the Miami members of the Gonzalez family had essentially turned the child into a hostage to protest the Castro regime, and that the feds got him back to his father with almost Entebbe-like precision.
Thailand's poorer, rural majority may indeed feel angry that they keep voting for Mr Thaksin and his allies, because they like his policies, such as cheap health care and microcredit schemes, only to have their will frustrated by the capital's elite.The Thaksinites hope that even if ousted from office again they can regroup once more and win another popular mandate.
A successful state is one in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and the majority of its citizens may feel theirs is such a state, even if a minority want out.
Nightclubs are usually dark and crowded, and regardless of how you may feel, the majority of the people there probably won't even notice how you're dancing.
"If I compare my situation with that of the majority of my fellow citizens I may feel privileged, but very far from the level of life I was used to, not that many years ago," says Federico, a 55-year-old journalist, author and university professor from Caracas.
But for the vast majority of working mothers, most victories may feel small when measured against the ongoing juggling act: keeping increasingly demanding employers happy, dealing with subtle and not-so-subtle conflicts with colleagues and stay-at home mothers who judge their decisions, and all the while trying to raise happy and healthy offspring.
The Supreme Court majority may have felt, understandably, that it would be neither realistic nor wise to try to formulate and put in place a uniform standard in six days.
Otherwise, some users, especially women who typically get the majority of inbound interest from men on dating apps, may feel pestered, ogled or even objectified.
Over time, Iraq's Sunni minority — notably in western Anbar Province, site of anti-government protests — may feel more commonality with eastern Syria's Sunni majority.
