...of the majority

Without straining logic any further, the Church Party was at present glorying in a small gain of a few hundred thousand votes, which, however large this might seem in relation to the total number of voters for this party or even to the total number of all the voters, only constituted a handful in comparison with the tens of millions of hearts which were supposed to be beating for the Church.
Certainly, Boris was not taken in by these propaganda devices, which were only good enough to deceive children. Nothing had really changed; even if a new majority were to establish itself in parliament, even if the King had to reshuffle his ministers, the ninety million phantom voters would continue to represent the real country and, ultimately, they were the ones who counted. And, in this sense, it was certain in any case that those in power represented the general opinion, because it was easier for them to upset any particular interest group with impunity than to take any initiative that would awaken the masses that supported none of them. That was why the important changes in law which figured in the party electoral programmes were never seriously proposed by their mandated defenders, so dangerous did it seem to them to get the assembly to adopt a reform, the promise of which had not attracted the country to the ballot boxes. Any group that took advantage of its fleeting majority to try to force through such a measure would in fact be taking the risk, apart from the remote possibility of a popular rising, of seeing a few malcontents who were in disagreement breaking out of their silence the following year and throwing their weight on the other side, thereby upsetting the clever combinations of bought electorates.

[A Regicide, Robbe-Grillet, A.]