Tocqueville Theory Of Egalitarianism

Tocqueville was a conservative from France whose ideas included order, natural hierarchy, obedience, ritual and religion. His idea of modernization included equality and democracy. His ideas of equality lead to the movement of egalitarianism and the fall of primogeniture. Egalitarianism’s affect ranged from the roles in the family line to the different positions at the work place. Tocqueville believed that with the rise of equality and with modern times the work place has lost its loyalty. Now it is a contract between employee and employer versus the loyalty between master and servant. Tocqueville also suggested that envy became a big part of people’s conscious with the rise of equality. With everyone being equal people’s opinions have become more important and everyone wants to be a part of the majority instead of the minority. This led them to strive to become better than those around them and desire to earn more money. Tocqueville stated that, “As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of
Americans have the “winner takes all” approach when it comes to how they live their lives. It is all about competition and winning, no one wants to loose. The market value is how individuals are judged. They are rated on how one “looks” on a scale from 1-10. Exemplifying that if you are on the lower end of the scale then you are currently “loosing” in the game of life. If you happen to be on the higher end of the scale then you are definitely ahead of the game. Individuals are also judged on how much money they make, or how successful they are in their career. If you don’t have money or a good job then you are not in the winning section of life’s competition. The phrase “a good catch” also shows how individuals are even judged on the people they choose to marry or