Well, minority shareholders are protected, well, in three ways.  First, if there’s an agreement, those agreements often contain clauses that would offer some shareholder protection.

Also, by statute and common law, there are protections for minority shareholders from instances of oppression, for example, or if a minority shareholder’s shares becomes diluted.  If there’s actions by the majority shareholders that harm the minority shareholder, there’s legal recourse, depending on what the issue is.