Insights on De Tocqueville's Democracy In America
It has been said that a French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville, who
visited the United States in the 1830's, "understood us" in a way that few
observers (foreign and domestic) have. Furthermore, Tocqueville's Democracy in
America is often cited by present-day critics because so many of the
observations in it seem extraordinarily suitable even more than one hundred and
fifty years later. Alexis de Tocqueville was born 1805 into a minor noble family,
in which his grandfather had been guillotined during the French Revolution. He
had come to the United States in 1831 to study the prison system, in which he
did not do, instead he wrote Democracy in America. He had stayed in the United
States through February 1832 for about nine months, so intrigued by democracy,
majority rule, and the absence of social hierarchy. Democracy in America was
first published in 1825, full of observations and interpretations, was written
as a sort of warning for European readers; "Is this what you want?" he asks.
This book was famous for two accurate predictions, one, the U.S. would someday
be a world power as would Russia, second, race would prove to be the most
intractable problem for the U.S.
One of Tocqueville's observations about the United States is that he
thought there is no country in the civilized world that is less attention paid
philosophy than the United States. This is applicable to American life in 1997
because the whole world is practically joined to the United States. Just about
every country in the world trades with, tours in, and watches for the United
States. What I mean by watches is that they practically always know what's going
on (except for the top-secret things) in the United States, whether it be by
television, computers, or satellites they know what the U.S. is doing. The U.S.
is basically a "free-for-all" county; the laws and schools are less strict than
other countries such as, Japan in which the students there have to go to school
six days a week with much more homework then U.S. schools.
Another observation of Alexis is that religion is associated with all
the customs of the nation and all the feelings of patriotism. Another way of
saying this that there is a religion for everyone. This is still true in 1997
because everyone has there own belief and goes to the church or believes in the
religion that they desire. The religious person believes in what he or she wants
to believe in and in most case respects what another persons religion might be.
Tocqueville was a Frenchman who was interested in America and its democratic design. He spoke of his observations about America in his book, Democracy in America. Tocqueville’s attitudes towards Americans seem to be very appreciative. He saw democracy as a perfect balance between freedom and equality. Yet, while he is appreciative, he is also quite critical of some of the effects of democracy in America. Tocqueville believed that there were some faults with democracy and states them in his book.
Democracy in America has been a guiding principle since the foundation of the country. Many over the years have commented on the structure and formation of democracy but more importantly the implementation and daily function within the democratic parameters that have been set. Alexis de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian born July 29, 1805. He is most famously known for his work Democracy in America. Democracy in America has been an evolving social and economic reform, and has continually changed since it’s founding.
In Democracy in America, Alexis De Tocqueville explains the dangers of democracy and explains the virtues that temper these dangers. In this paper, I will look at two issues Tocqueville discussed extensively in late 19th century American democracy and posit what Tocqueville may say about these issues today. The points I will discuss are materialism and religion. In a democracy, such as America, the individual’s opportunity to succeed makes him more likely to become attached to material and money. However, in Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, this danger is tempered by religion, which quenches the lust for material by reducing its importance in comparison to good mores. These two elements of American democracy are a small portion of the “Habits of the hearts” of Americans; they are two ideas that complement each other to make democracy appealing and possible anywhere and everywhere. Is this the case today? Is the American’s relationship to materialism and religion similar today to what it was when Tocqueville visited America?
To say that many countries in Latin-American and in Europe are machistas is not a surprise for anyone. People who have born in Spain or in Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela grew in a society with fewer rights for women than men. The word machismo means "arrogant attitude of men towards women". This occurs in every single moment in our lives from our born to our death. But, at this moment I want to analyze the machismo in three areas: family, school and work.
Religion is one of the most scared aspects a person has in his or her life; for many practitioners
“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for
In a criticism on Henry James’s story The Turn of the Screw, Strother Purdy suggests that large amounts of sexual passion may be assumed to exist underneath the surface of the narrative. Purdy says that under a Freudian interpretation of the story, the sexual element is easily recognized and is used as the whole source of the action. According to this theory, the governess wishes to impress her master because she is in love with him and, therefore, exceeeding her authority with the children. Although the governess only sees her master twice, Purdy refers back to what Douglas had said,” it was the beauty of her passion.” Since the master is not impressed by her initial and ordinary course of governessing, she must make up some life-threatening danger to the children so she can rescue them and win the masters love and affection. She figures the danger must be terrible because he told her he did not want to be bothered with matters dealing with the children. He basically tells her he cares nothing for the children. Purdy suggests the governess is unconscious in doing this because she is sexually repressed and cannot admit her sexual motives to herself
I currently attend Tennessee State University as a freshman. I plan on majoring in Dental Hygiene. I am the first to graduate and attend college in my family so of course everybody has high expectations from me. My mom and dad sacrificed a lot for me to attend school and get a good education and they taught me that without education you really can’t do much with your life. I want to have a good career and a good degree so I can be successful in life. I want to make my parents happy and very proud of the young lady they have raised. My father’s dream has always been for me to major in Dental Hygiene because of how successful I can be. And my dream has always been to make my dad (my inspiration and my role model) happy. When I started off trying to decide my major I had a very hard time because I honestly didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to choose a major that I couldn’t really do much with or find a good job with. I asked my dad for help and he told me that this major would fit me perfectly and we looked up more information about it and we looked up the salary for it too and that’s when I knew I had found my major.
Most Mexican families are extremely traditional, with the man as the head of the house hold, and the authority figure. Machismo (masculinity) in all latino countries is a huge problem, not only because women are being deprived of their freedom, but because men abuse their power. I asked five Mexican women how they felt about Machismo in Mexico. Two of the five women told me kind of the same thing; They believe that it is not a bad thing, but it depends on the man. The other three were very against it, and they ...
"United States can be seen as the first liberal democracy. The United States Constitution, adopted in 1788, provided for an elected government and protected civil rights and liberties. On the American frontier, democracy became a way of life, with widespread social, economic and political equality. The system gradually evolved, from Jeffersonian Democracy or the First Party System to Jacksonian Democracy or the Second Party System and later to the Third Party System. In Reconstruction after the Civil War (late 1860s) the newly freed slaves became citizens, and they were given the vote as well." (Web, 1)
In a society where women are considered less than men, masochism reigns. Masculinity assumes that men are the valuable gender in the world: more intelligent, better problem solvers, and harder workers. It also assumes that women are best led by men: should women should be followers and obey their husbands. In “Beautiful Señoritas,” masochism remains strong. Even today, in certain parts of the Latin world, there are men invested in masculine views, those extremes of superiority are seen in characters such as Don José. The United States has been a worldwide leader in women’s rights and equality, and many cultures and nationalities have lagged far behind in recognizing equality for women. Notably Latin, Middle Eastern and Asian cultures have women in subservient roles, with harsh punishment and outcast from society often the result for women that try to esta...
The scenes in creation being intellectual, the put together of constitutional democracy was very empirical. The Constitutional Convention was convened to formulate the constitution. What had to be clear was that the only way to assure a functioning constitutional democracy was the public's discussion. In philadelphia the delegates compromised. The outcome was to integrate states with large populations and states with small populations with a bicameral legislative branch. Also compromises that guaranteed say from both slave owning states and non-slave states could be listened to. The Bill of Rights
Throughout the course of history, mankind has been recorded to corrupt itself. Men have grown tired of simply surviving; they have had to take and conquer others. Absolute monarchies control wealth, land, and even lives of men. The conditions of the people were solely dependent on the conditions of the one who was in power in that particular place and time. History has proven that most men rule unwisely in their kingdoms. To avoid tyrannical rule, some make an attempt to set up a government in which the people ruled themselves. This form of government is called a democracy, or “rule of the people.” History has also revealed through the Greeks and the French Revolution, that a democracy that gives complete power to the people, “absolute democracy”, is nothing more than a short prelude to tyranny.
Democracy in the American culture is defined as “a system of government in which power is vested in people, either directly or through freely elected representatives.” Which is stated in Webster dictionary. Many Americans to me do not advantage democracy we live in. I feel as though too many people in authority have a substantial amount of power, and end up making the wrong decision. Which is not of the best interest for the people. The Government has devised a way for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. There is no median in between the high levels of society and the lower-class. Our middle class is vanishing, and it mainly because of how our democracy is setup. Our government is corrupt as a whole, which includes our democracy. Too many people in our democracy have the overall power and decision making ability to enforce, what they feel should be enforced in law. One example of this is the ongoing pain of taxes. Democracy is all about equality, but we totally lack it when paying our taxes. The small one percent of high class Americans are getting richer while
Henry James's Turn of the Screw was written in a time when open sexuality was looked down upon. On the surface, the story is simply about a governess taking care of two children who are haunted by two ghosts. However, the subtext of the story is about the governess focusing on the children's innocence, and the governess trying to find her own sexual identity. Priscilla L. Walton wrote a gender criticism themed essay about the Turn of the Screw, which retells certain parts of the story and touches on the significance they provide for the sexually explicit theme. Walton's essay is accurate because James purposely put an undertone of sexuality and identity confusion in the Turn of the Screw.