Tocqueville: A Threat To Democracy

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Tocqueville displays the tyranny of the majority as a grave threat to the American democracy, but what does he mean by this? The power of the majority is threatening, as Tocqueville states, “It is of the very essence of democratic governments that the empire of the majority is absolute; for in democracies, outside the majority there is nothing that resists it” (1.2.7.235). The majority is dangerous, in a sense that nothing can overpower the laws and decisions they want to see appear in the United States. The majority is commonly a bandwagon method that people join, based solely on that fact that it is the most popular opinion. However, it is not true that the content of majority’s opinion is always better, instead, Tocqueville insists, “The moral …show more content…
This inability to challenge the majority is what allows the majority to make a tyrannical approach in endangering the democracy of America. The legislators buy into this tyranny of the majority because they both agree with the majority and want to please the people that put them into office. This favoritism of the majority is not only secluded to certain people or parties, as Tocqueville claims, “all the parties are ready to recognize the rights of the majority because they all hope to be able to exercise them to their profit one day” (1.2.7.237). The majority rules the American government, as the minority is forced to live by the rules set out by others. The reason that the tyranny of the majority is so dangerous to America is that: they control popular opinion, insist legislators act on their behalf, and destroy any sense of independence that America boasts. Tocqueville gives his first-hand rejection of the vast amounts of freedom advertised in America, “I do not know any other country where, in general, less independence of mind and genuine freedom of discussion reign than in America”

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