Both The Federalist Papers and Democracy in America largely praise democracy, but they have their fair share of criticism reserved for democratic government as well. The issues of majority factions, persecution of dissenting opinions, and individualism are touched on in one or both works as examples of flaws in democracy.
The primary threat to democracy, as James Madison articulated in Federalist #10, is the influence of factions on political life. The existence of competing factions can lead America down the dangerous road of hyperpluralism, in which many special interests contend for influence, acting as an impediment to the efficiency of government. At its worst, this is exhibited by congressional gridlock. Opposing parties disagree so much …show more content…
Rather than having the average citizen’s best interests in mind, a demagogue will make unrealistic promises to sway the least educated and informed masses of society in order to get elected. Once elected, the demagogue runs their agenda as they wish, normally contrary to the well being of the citizenry. Madison’s description of majority factions is also an acute summarization of the followers of a demagogue, “…who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”. The key word is “impulse”. A demagogue will play on the misguided impulses of the uneducated to propel oneself into office, and thus, into power. This malicious hunger for power found in majority factions leads to political corruption. As Madison explains, we can rid ourselves of the problem of factions by removing its causes. To remove its causes, we must either destroy liberty or instill uniform thought. Clearly, we cannot do that. Destroying liberty would betray the ideals that America was founded on, and instilling uniform thought is impossible. Since removing the causes of factions is …show more content…
Individualism, as defined by Tocqueville, is the pattern of behavior among citizens to focus on their own life and issues that impact them, but feel apathy towards most other things in the world. Thus, they escape most political issues by secluding themselves in their inner social circle and ignoring much of the outside world. This is a significant threat to democracy since civic engagement is the fuel for our government. We need informed citizens who regularly vote and participate in the political system in order to have an effective democracy. If citizens abstain from public affairs, corruption will be widespread in the government. The government will no longer serve the people, but take advantage of them instead. Tocqueville suggests that forming associations, and focusing more on the local level of politics, will increase civic engagement. National politics may seem removed from the lives of ordinary citizens, but local politics directly affect everyone. Thus, if citizens paid more attention to local politics, civil engagement would increase. Clearly, Tocqueville was correct in his assessment of individualism. Democracy deteriorates when individualism is prevalent in society, and an effective solution would be to place more importance on local, township
The primary threat to democracy, as James Madison articulated in Federalist #10, is the influence of factions on political life. The existence of competing factions can lead America down the dangerous road of hyperpluralism, in which many special interests contend for influence, acting as an impediment to the efficiency of government. At its worst, this is exhibited by congressional gridlock. Opposing parties disagree so much …show more content…
Rather than having the average citizen’s best interests in mind, a demagogue will make unrealistic promises to sway the least educated and informed masses of society in order to get elected. Once elected, the demagogue runs their agenda as they wish, normally contrary to the well being of the citizenry. Madison’s description of majority factions is also an acute summarization of the followers of a demagogue, “…who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”. The key word is “impulse”. A demagogue will play on the misguided impulses of the uneducated to propel oneself into office, and thus, into power. This malicious hunger for power found in majority factions leads to political corruption. As Madison explains, we can rid ourselves of the problem of factions by removing its causes. To remove its causes, we must either destroy liberty or instill uniform thought. Clearly, we cannot do that. Destroying liberty would betray the ideals that America was founded on, and instilling uniform thought is impossible. Since removing the causes of factions is …show more content…
Individualism, as defined by Tocqueville, is the pattern of behavior among citizens to focus on their own life and issues that impact them, but feel apathy towards most other things in the world. Thus, they escape most political issues by secluding themselves in their inner social circle and ignoring much of the outside world. This is a significant threat to democracy since civic engagement is the fuel for our government. We need informed citizens who regularly vote and participate in the political system in order to have an effective democracy. If citizens abstain from public affairs, corruption will be widespread in the government. The government will no longer serve the people, but take advantage of them instead. Tocqueville suggests that forming associations, and focusing more on the local level of politics, will increase civic engagement. National politics may seem removed from the lives of ordinary citizens, but local politics directly affect everyone. Thus, if citizens paid more attention to local politics, civil engagement would increase. Clearly, Tocqueville was correct in his assessment of individualism. Democracy deteriorates when individualism is prevalent in society, and an effective solution would be to place more importance on local, township