Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville portrays Tocqueville’s own observations of the United States during his visit in 1831. Originally the purpose of his travels was to study the prison systems of the United States, but by the time he returned to France he had many ideas of how Europe could learn from the United States. Tocqueville examined the structure and function of democracy in the United States, and after reading his accounts it is clear that he supports rule of the people. For the
In his book Democracy in America, Alexis De ‘Tocqueville recounts his firsthand experience with the burgeoning democracy in America. Overall, his account views democracy as a positive development, but he is fearful of a hidden toll on freedom that democracy brings. Expanding on idea of a danger coming from majority factions commented on by Madison and Adams, Tocqueville adopts the term “tyranny of the majority” in expressing this new and unprecedented danger. Several decades later English Philosopher
The most interesting concept in Alexis De Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is his description of the balance between freedom and equality. The drive that Americans have for equality has been both simultaneously valuable and dangerous, but equality today is bearing a weight on America within its laws, language, and traditions proportional to that of the liberties on which it was founded. I understand California politics better through Tocqueville’s analysis of the passions for equality and the dangers
Modern Social Theory Section B1 Prompt C Title: Tocqueville and Marx as modern social theorists Modern social theory arose as a response to the changes in society, sparked particularly by the French Revolution. The accomplishments from the French Revolution laid the very framework in which societies was thrust into the modern. Alexis De Tocqueville and Karl Marx were the few theorists at the forefront whose writings embody the spirit of modernity. Tocqueville and Marx had the immaculate ability to grasp