American Democracy Alexis De Tocqueville Summary

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Recommended: Impact of religion on society

Katie Blong
American Political Thought
Dr. John Colman
April 30, 2014
American Democracy: Alexis de Tocqueville and Allan Bloom
As the pursuit for equality consumes the minds of free people, the benefits of a democratic life become more memorable, rather than the discipline that allows freedom to blossom. Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman studying the American democracy in the early nineteenth century discussed in his work, Democracy in America, what where the important details that enabled the United States to be a successful and healthy society. The observations of Tocqueville on American culture are mostly optimistic, but at the same time, he is alert to the defects of a culture strongly driven by a life centered on the equality of conditions. …show more content…

He suggest that with a reintroduction of the original curriculums, students will be able to form their own ideas again and not be forced become base and animalized. He says, "... the only serious solution is the one that is almost universally rejected: the good old Great Books approach, in which liberal education means reading certain generally recognized classic texts, just reading them, letting them dictate what the questions are and the method of approaching them- not forcing them into categories we make up, not treating them as historical products, but trying to read them as their authors wished them to be read." The idea is that you draw one out so that they may flourish. Bloom suggests, "The teacher . . . must constantly try to look toward the goal of human completeness and back at the natures of his students here and now." However, it isn’t about how much you read rather how you read it. This is expressed through your teaching style. It can be dangerous to teach your student too much and not actually teach them. Conversely, it is dangerous to teach them …show more content…

In the past religion has been counterproductive and a source of scandal in society, however, it is a major fighter against despotism. Tocqueville states, "Despotism may be able to do without faith, but freedom cannot. . . . How could a society escape destruction if, when political ties are relaxed, moral ties are not tightened? And what can be done with a people master of itself if it is not subject to God?" If religion and the university are comparable to the effect that they influence the internal movement of the soul, then the loss of that would be damaging to society. If despotism is able to thrive without faith, but freedom will not; then what does that say about the importance of religion and the

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