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Alexis de Tocqueville (Weaknesses of Democracy (Democracies vulnerable to…
Alexis de Tocqueville
Weaknesses of Democracy
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New specific kind of despotism that limited the population's free will and individual thought (seems less severe, but erodes ability to exercise free will)
Doesn't "give the people the most skilful government" and not necessarily well-equipped to handle short-term crises
Problems don't lie in risk of instability or tyranny of those in power - BUT: in psychological fallout of social equality among citizens and of pressure for moral conformity
Feared that democracy would produce banality in politics and obsessions with individual material well-being at the expense of aspirations to human greatness
Danger in democracy that people will allow same ideas to remain prevalent and never bother to work for progress
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Democracy in America
Associations
Tocqueville: True superiority of democracies lies in energy and activity of (political) associations
"Democracy does not give the most skilful government to the people [but it] does what the most skilful government is often powerless to create; it spreads a restive activity through the whole social body [...] which [...] can bring forth marvels"
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Sovereignty of people in democracy --> Restlessness can move from private to public sphere through election and direct actions --> Restlessness is why democracy can adapt so well and doesn't give up in the face of problems / challenges
Americans enjoy an extreme freedom of political association (considered dangerous by Europeans, but Tocqueville: extreme freedom can correct abuses of freedom)
Associations more power than press, unlimited freedom of association in US may be dangerous, but is also a guarantee against tyranny of majority, no association can claim to represent a majority
Citizens forming numerous associations is beneficial to democratic life because it combats individualism and circulates new thoughts, associations take the place of powerful individuals whom equality of conditions have eliminated
Aristocracy: Associations supplied for individuals, Democracy: men need to make associations themselves
Federalism
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Americans had tied passion for equality to federalism --> Created decentralised form of government + weak central state --> Allowed American society shaped by the passion for equality to act for itself
Tocqueville though European states would become democratic over time, but could not have federalism
"No one can appreciate the advantages of a federal system more than I. I hold it to be one of the most powerful combinations favouring human prosperity and freedom [...] But yet I refuse to believe that with equal force on either side, a confederated nation can long fight against a nation with centralised power"
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Jury + Townships
Townships attach citizens to their government + combine their personal interests with national concerns --> Link between local and national level of politics
Jury duty teaches citizens self-government and the ability to enforce laws ("the most energetic means of making people reign"
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Equality
US has democratic politics because there is a fundamental equality of social conditions in the country --> These conditions ensure that democracy will ultimately endure
Equality comes from: a) abolition of laws of primogeniture, b) abundance of land, c) Protestant ethos of equality that settlers brought from Europe
These conditions produced a specific kind of citizen who had learned the art of association + a specific kind of society possessed by a restless intense energy #
The condition of equality then produced a particular kind of politics centred on the principle of the sovereignty of the people (this was then sustained by social mores and laws)
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