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. One of these faults that Tocqueville discusses is the influence that democracy has on America. Democracy gives everyone the chance to have their say in their government. Americans believe that democracy is a great thing. However, Tocqueville discussed the influences that this worship of democracy has created. For instance, Tocqueville states how Americans did not consider philosophy to be important and have no philosophical school of their own. Yet, even without much attention paid to philosophy, Americans all think similarly. This similar philosophy is using the same method of depending on their own understanding and opinion to make decisions. Tocqueville believed that this method is used by Americans because of an aversion they have to accepting things solely because authorities say to and instead they the need to think for themselves. Instead of accepting what the authorities say, Americans believe that nothing is impossible to understand and everything can be explained through using a person’s own judgment about things. This reliance on a person’s judgment also leads to Americans having a distrust of all things supernatural. Tocqueville’s observations here seem to be quite critical and appear to look at American’s reverence for their j... ... middle of paper ... ...here is no need to worry about creating new art or new literature when they can just rely on Europe. This can also be seen as a part of the apathy that is created from individualism. Tocqueville believes this to be another problem with democracy and its influence. Tocqueville seems to like democracy in its ideal form. However, nothing can be perfect and thus America is not a perfect democracy. Tocqueville found numerous problems with democracy and the influence it had on the populace. These problems range from their distrust of dogmatic beliefs to the imperfect equality that is in place in America. He also found the effects of these problems to be quite problematic as well. For instance, individualism, an effect of equality, is very problematic to democracy. Tocqueville enjoys considering America as an experiment in democracy, but does not find it to be faultless.
During Colonial America many things at the time were debated if they were democratic or undemocratic. Back then these features would be mostly undemocratic for others yet benefit others.There were also things that were a work in progress,Equality is a good example of this and was a work in progress.
Alexis De Tocqueville painted a portrait of a flourishing democracy within the text, Democracy in America. Tocqueville proposed that equality was one of the fundamental tenets that aided the success of American democracy. He defined equality of conditions as the end of aristocracy: “the noble has fallen on the social ladder, and the commoner has risen; the one descends, the other climbs. Each half century brings them nearer, and soon they are going to touch” (Democracy in America, book, 6). American democracy flourishes because there is an established equality of conditions for all; American democracy enforced the absence of formal rank and the end of births into positions of power while encouraging forms of power that challenged rank and privilege. However, in his analysis, Alexis De Tocqueville recognized the presence of race based inequality and cautioned that the reinforcement of a racial hierarchy could be detrimental to American democracy. Such observations characterize Tocqueville as insightful and
Tocqueville, a foreigner, came to the United States to study American prison reform, but was so disgusted with the way our society was and how our government functioned under Jackson that he changed the focus of his study to an analysis of democracy. He saw democracy by our example as “far from accomplishing all it projects with skill” and that “Democracy does not give people the most skillful government.” Jackson’s example of democracy was horrible.
Tocqueville (rather bizarrely in retrospect) conceived of America as having “an almost complete equality of conditions”. While in respect to the French alone, Tocqueville argues, “the taste and the idea of freedom began to exist and to be developed only at the time when social conditions were tending to equality and as a consequence of that very equality.” Tocqueville draws the first stirrings of equality to the “political power of the clergy,” which upon being consolidated began to spread and upon its ranks to “all classes, to rich and poor, commoner, and noble.” Thus “through the Church, equality penetrates into the government, and he who as a serf must have vegetated in perpetual bondage could, as a priest, take his place in the midst of nobles, and would often sit above kings.” Tocqueville continues to trace the ascent of equality and descent of aristocracy to the financial demise of kings “ruining themselves by their great enterprises; the nobles exhausting their resources by private wars, [while] the lower orders enriching themselves by commerce”. And with the advent and spread of education, the “value attached to high birth declines just as fast as new avenues to power are
In talking about the importance of forming associations in America, de Tocqueville says, “Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations...In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.” My belief is that he is saying that although f...
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.
Alexis De Tocqueville is a well-known political philosopher known for his ideas that last far past his lifespan and apply to almost every situation of America’s government as it has progressed. These long-lasting predictions and basic principles of government that De Tocqueville spoke of in his works heavily capture the American government from a perspective that existed at the very introduction of such a government. While some of De Tocqueville’s ideas continue to to exemplify America’s government, not every idea De Tocqueville has had can continue to as the nation goes through it’s sharp, unexpected changes.
In Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, he discusses his experience with the structure of American society and the effects it has on the people. He points to the emphasis on equality that he sees in America as a reason for its success as a new, developing nation. The increasing equality of conditions leads to the governmental structure of majority rule, where decisions are made based on number of opinions. Tocqueville initially praises the democracy in America but then goes on to warn against the possibility of the “tyranny of the majority” and the downside of the majority having too much power and influence. Because of the consequences of the tyranny of the majority that I have seen in present day life and Tocqueville’s own reasoning, I believe he is right to suggest that the majority’s power needs to be limited to a certain extent in order to allow a sufficient balance between freedom and equality, which are necessary to the happiness of a society.
In this excerpt from Democracy in America Alexis Tocqueville expresses his sentiments about the United States democratic government. Tocqueville believes the government's nature exists in the absolute supremacy of the majority, meaning that those citizens of the United States who are of legal age control legislation passed by the government. However, the power of the majority can exceed its limits. Tocqueville believed that the United States was a land of equality, liberty, and political wisdom. He considered it be a land where the government only served as the voice of the its citizens. He compares the government of the US to that of European systems. To him, European governments were still constricted by aristocratic privilege, the people had no hand in the formation of their government, let alone, there every day lives. He held up the American system as a successful model of what aristocratic European systems would inevitably become, systems of democracy and social equality. Although he held the American democratic system in high regards, he did have his concerns about the systems shortcomings. Tocqueville feared that the virtues he honored, such as creativity, freedom, civic participation, and taste, would be endangered by "the tyranny of the majority." In the United States the majority rules, but whose their to rule the majority. Tocqueville believed that the majority, with its unlimited power, would unavoidably turn into a tyranny. He felt that the moral beliefs of the majority would interfere with the quality of the elected legislators. The idea was that in a great number of men there was more intelligence, than in one individual, thus lacking quality in legislation. Another disadvantage of the majority was that the interests of the majority always were preferred to that of the minority. Therefore, giving the minority no chance to voice concerns.
De Tocqueville’s argument was between equality versus individualism. He describes individualism as “a calm and considered feeling which disposes each citizen to isolate himself from the mass of his fellows and withdraw into the circle of family and friends” (De Tocqueville, 506). His perspective was that individualism empowers people to become competent but also strengthens and reassures society to work with the others in the community to magnify the possibilities for humans. As stated by Professor Veugelers “De Tocqueville happened to see that the inequality between the rich and the poor became more restricted, and thought that at some point the gap will close.”
...religions of the citizens, the immigrant melting-pot nature of the country, and the market-driven economy in which an equality of opportunity and old fashioned American elbow grease is all one needs to succeed. America certainly is not a perfect democracy, in any sense of the word. However, the particular brand of democracy practiced in America has shown itself over a course of more than two hundred years to be both resilient and flexible. American democracy may not be perfect, but democratic it surely is.
"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)
According to Tocqueville, the source of individualism in democratic societies is the equality of conditions (Tocqueville 483). As class associations previously found in aristocracies disappear, each citizen isolates himself “from the mass of those like him” and withdraws “to one side with his family and his friends” (Tocqueville 482). After the individual removes himself from those similar to him, he creates “a little society for his own use” and then “willingly abandons society at large” (Tocqueville 482). The individual finds himself stranded, removed from the family lineage that bonded members of different generations in aristocratic times. Likewise, Hobbes also characterizes individualism through his imagined “state of nature,” a world in which men are “so equal in the faculties of body and mind” that they all hope to achieve the same ends (Hobbes 74-75). Therefore, Hobbes and Tocqueville agree that equality is the source of
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, and Donald A. Cress. "On Democracy." Basic Political Writings. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1987. 179-80. Print.
De Tocqueville states that: “ The first and liveliest of the passions inspired by equality is, love of that equality itself.” (Reader 321) This is why democratic nations are more concerned with equality than liberty. Because of this love for equality, De Tocqueville argues that there is a new form of oppression that threatens democracies. This type of oppression is one that has never been witnessed before in history, due to the lack of successful democracies until De Tocqueville’s era. According to De Tocqueville, despotism and tyranny don’t accurately describe the situation. He describes it as what could be labeled as “soft despotism”. He adamantly argues that this oppression is one that will go un-noticed until future generations later on, upon recognizing the problem, are powerless to stop it.