Pros And Cons De Tocqueville

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Recommended: Equality in America a myth

America is viewed around the world as the land of opportunities, where anyone willing to work hard and help their neighbor is welcomed with open arms. The one thing that many seek out of the United States is the equality and natural rights bestowed upon all in the Bill of Rights. Alexis de Tocqueville, a French diplomat, wrote about the United States and the basic founding principles of its democracy as well as how the people of America utilize their rights to create a better common good for everyone. The communal effort, to Tocqueville, symbolized an equality of conditions that would slowly filter itself into law, creating laws for the betterment of society as a whole and not just the individual. He also believes that the progress of equality …show more content…

Smith describes the three strands in American political culture; liberal, republican, and ascriptive ideologies. The liberal strand contains the idea of liberal egalitarianism, meaning that the good parts in society will eventually win over time by working to contain ascriptive ideologies, which is the way that society perceives a certain people. These labels can never be completely eradicated due to their nature to morph overtime, meaning that the process of equality is a constant battle. The republican strand of political culture describes the representative nature of our government where the people elect others to represent their interests. In order to get rid of the ascriptive ideologies that block total inequality, Smith believes we will have to stop being human for that to happen. He offers instead that the best way to combat these labels is to recognize the differences and the benefits attached to them in order to predict recurring ascriptions. While Rogers Smith does not refute that the idea of equality is more or less inevitable, like Tocqueville, he believes that it is an ongoing battle that does not have an

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