Democracy In America Essay
Democracy is known to be one of the greatest institutionalized forms of government in our history. In America, democracy is seen as a perfect governmental system that is incapable of corruption due to its legal equality and political freedom. However Alexis de Tocqueville, a French socialist and political theorist believed that the democratic system held by the United States had several flaws that if were to come into play, would cause it to weakened and eventually collapse. He talked on and wrote on these flaws in his book, Democracy in America. Tocqueville admired and was a strong supporter of the governmental system and believed it to be a good regime, nonetheless he pointed the few key issues that would be most significant in the demise
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The tyranny of the soul is what Tocqueville feared would cause associations that were to be misused just like that of his home in France. Associations in Europe lead to uprising and possible overthrowing of the government. He shares this with us when he speaks, “An association is an army; one speaks in it so as to be counted and to be inspired, and then one marches toward the enemy.” But this is not the case in America. Associations in America are different, “In America, citizens who form the minority associate at first to establish their number and thus to weaken the moral empire of the majority; the second object of those associating is to set up a competition and in this manner to discover the most appropriate arguments with which to make an impression on the majority." Tocqueville argues that associations in America arise to ensure that citizens have a place in their society, a group to relate to that prevents majority of tyranny from occurring by “opposing the moral force as a whole to the material power that oppresses it.” Civil associations of a democracy keep in the hands of the minority which they use as power over the majority. Tocqueville understands this and notices, “Political associations in the United States are therefore peaceful in their objects and legal in their
The tyranny of the soul is what Tocqueville feared would cause associations that were to be misused just like that of his home in France. Associations in Europe lead to uprising and possible overthrowing of the government. He shares this with us when he speaks, “An association is an army; one speaks in it so as to be counted and to be inspired, and then one marches toward the enemy.” But this is not the case in America. Associations in America are different, “In America, citizens who form the minority associate at first to establish their number and thus to weaken the moral empire of the majority; the second object of those associating is to set up a competition and in this manner to discover the most appropriate arguments with which to make an impression on the majority." Tocqueville argues that associations in America arise to ensure that citizens have a place in their society, a group to relate to that prevents majority of tyranny from occurring by “opposing the moral force as a whole to the material power that oppresses it.” Civil associations of a democracy keep in the hands of the minority which they use as power over the majority. Tocqueville understands this and notices, “Political associations in the United States are therefore peaceful in their objects and legal in their