Tocqueville Tyranny Of The Majority Summary

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Tocqueville’s Tyranny of the majority
Alexis de Tocqueville was a French politic who studied American Society and its democracy. One of the things that he admired the most about America was the democracy that existed in the government, however this democracy generated some problems. One of them was the level of power that a majority could have. Since all the citizens were equal among them, a problem that existed was that the interests of majorities will have more importance than the ones of minorities. In a democracy people will be actively participating in the decisions that are taken and when a group of people has different interests than other, a tyranny of majority can appear. This can be defined as when the opinions and points of view …show more content…

He mentions how people have some predetermined ideas in their mind that contribute in the power given to majorities. “The moral empire of the majority is founded in part on the idea that there is more enlightment and wisdom in many men united than in one alone” (Tocqueville, CP, 141). One of the problems with this idea is that a lot of people can think in the same way, but that does not always mean that they are right. In a society with a democracy as America, the interests of a large group of people are more taken into consideration than the ones of a minority because of this predetermined idea that people has. “The moral empire of the majority is also founded on the principle that the interests of the greatest number ought to be preferred to those of the few”. (Tocqueville, CP, 141). Democracy can lead to having a tyranny of a majority because since all the people are equal, and therefore have the same right to express themselves, the interests of minorities would be ignored because a lot of people will be happy with the decisions that are taken even if they are wrong. Ethical and moral background play a big role on the power that majorities …show more content…

Tocqueville said that one of the problems with legislative was that there are always new people coming to the power, and that creates instability. “Legislative instability is an evil inherit in democratic government because it is of the nature of democracies to bring new men to power”. The legislative is the power that is going to be creating the laws of the country, having new representatives in short periods of time can create some instability because these new people could have new ideas and points of view than their predecessors. “American is the one in which the laws have the least duration” ( Tocqueville, CP, 142). It is true that the laws change a lot, but also the environment around them is constantly changing. Stability is always necessary, but if the conditions change then it is a good idea having the laws changed too. Unfortunately, when something changes, the interests of the minorities can be ignored because democracy tends to watch over the interests of the

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