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
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
opinion shaped with the effect of this relationship? Is the public opinion, as it is supposed to be, represent all dynamics in a society? Can democracy be manipulate,? How is this manipulation prevented? These questions are also important to answer after describing the structure of public sphere and political sphere in democratic countries. In this respect, Alexis de Tocqueville’s main concern is majority in a democratic society, precisely, the possibility of abusing the majority’ power. He suggests certain
society, Dr. Stockmann is a great example of what an individualistic person would be like. When analyzing his political role through the ideas of different thinkers,
that early American democracy was well developed and stable. However, the democratic system of government that had been adopted by the U.S. had never been implemented before, and the idea of popular sovereignty was, until that point, mostly just a theory. This meant that the early United States was, in many ways, a political project. Early American democracy was tremendously unstable. Parties and leaders found it extremely difficult to define the limits and allowances of democracy, which resulted in
ensure that the legislature did not depart from the will of the majority, Tocqueville believes these restraints are necessary to prevent that same majority from overstepping its bounds. Tocqueville also advocates for a decentralized administration in order to mitigate the effect of the majority in law. Tocqueville commends America for the central government’s “great prerogatives hav[ing] been confined to a central sphere” (Tocqueville 110), while the day to day execution of the law has been left to the
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
throughout history in various countries and cultures. Some of the most obvious examples are the ancient Roman Empire, the British Empire, and Hitler’s Germany. All of these nations were once great in their own ways, but they also experienced turning points in their own histories where their exceptionalism became unyielding ethnocentric imperialism, which eventually led to their collapse. The United States is of course another example of a great and powerful nation with ideological exceptionalism. The earliest
allowed the children to speak their native language and were punished harshly if they did speak their languages, and instead taught them English. The whites were hoping that by doing this they could “kill the Indian” and “save the man.” Further examples of harsh mistreatment that could be deemed civil rights violations now. In 1831, the Supreme court ruled that the Native tribes were considered domestic dependent nations, which essentially meant we were separate people but without the rights of