Alexis De Tocqueville's Democracy In America

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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 that exist because of it in America. According to Tocqueville people in the America would be prefer living in slavish conditions rather than living in disparity with one another in the name of equality. Slight gaps in wealth, novelty, and status between Americans is more noticeable than compared to a government of aristocracy. In an aristocracy the vast majority of the society is poor and completely unequal in all conditions, but they do not spend their time fighting for equality because the…show more content…
Tocqueville was correct in that men who can clearly see the dangers of equality have a fear to address it, for raising awareness of the danger for sacrificing freedoms for equality has become a task as difficult as trying to halt democracy itself. Equality in America continues to become a more broad, delusional, and senseless term that has peaked in many ways, but through it citizens have fulfilled a great task of bringing enlightenment, progress, and better conditions to many in this country. However the question regarding liberties must be addressed as “preserving liberty requires work, just as athletic, academic, or any other form of excellence
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