Alexis Tocqueville: The Impossibility Of A Flawless Government
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The Impossibility of a Flawless Government
Alexis Tocqueville, a world famous critic of the democratic government once stated, “To love democracy well, one must love it moderately.” Democracy is a system that cannot be forced onto people with extreme measures, nor neglected by its followers; it thrives on a happy medium between obsession and apathy. To fully understand the greatness of such a form of government, one must allow themselves to take into account and accept all of its defects. American authors of The Federalist Papers (Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison), along with Frenchman, Alexis Tocqueville, give readers an incredibly analytical and profound description of democracy. These men presented tyranny of the majority,…show more content… He explained that in this country, since the people themselves have the indirect power to make changes to laws and policies, they collectively influenced each other to think in a relatively narrow way. If one is to go against the general public opinion, he or she is likely to be ridiculed, ignored, and even mocked. Such shame often scares people away from thinking outside of the common ideas and viewpoints, making alternative thought practically nonexistent. The enslavement of African-Americans in the US is a vivid example of majority tyranny. Despite the fact that such treatment of human beings was so obviously brutal, a large amount of US citizens supported it for years, due to all of the pressure from the majority on one to believe that servitude can be…show more content… Today’s society seems to be moving closer and closer to secularism. Based on Tocqueville’s quote: “I doubt that man can veer support a complete religious independence and an entire political freedom, [democracy], at once; and I am brought to think that if he has no faith, he must serve, and if he is free, he must believe.” he would have seen today’s trend as a crisis (T. 419). Since democracy grants people the freedom to pursue whatever pleasure they prefer, religion is necessary to keep people’s selfishness under control. Though the American system of benefitting others to benefit oneself is effective, without religious restraint it is not enough to suppress people’s instinct to trample each other to get