Alexis de Tocqueville

The Case for Alexis de Tocqueville and “Democracy in America” In the last century, we have seen democracy become the dominant form of government around the world. Even governments that our totalitarian and undemocratic by nature, like the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, still want to refer to themselves as democracies. This state of affairs would seem to confirm Alexis de Tocqueville’s perdition about the spread of democracy. Writing in the early 19th century, He could see the democracy…

it has existed, as Christopher Lloyd’s article would note “exceptionalism has arguably been situated at the center of the nation’s ideology since its founding in the seventeenth century. Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is frequently cited as the first scripting of America as exceptional.” Tocqueville noted that associations in America allowed for democracy to prevail the way is has, but with associations and civil society at an all-time low, technology is the forthcoming…

Alexis de Tocqueville considered that American democracy engendered a double danger. On the one hand, it laid the foundations for the destruction of the aristocratic order by manipulating the possibilities of all citizens, but at the same time, it had what it called the dictatorship of the majorities. Tocqueville was critical of the relentless pursuit of profit or wealth accumulation and the cult of individuality…

unanimously voted for a gift basket rather than a sleeping bag filled with canned goods. This, although comical, is exactly what Alex de Tocqueville was talking about when he wrote Tyranny of the Majority. His theories and observations are still relevant today present not only in silly TV shows but in governments around the world, especially the United States. Tocqueville starts his argument is that the Constitution of the United States is written to give power to the majority of the…

democracies, outside the majority is nothing that resist of” (235). He’s clearly stating that the U.S is run by a Democracy, but within that Democracy is a ruling/living by majority, and all this leads to a tyranny. Before, I get into the bashing that Tocqueville gives the U.S, I want to talk about his justifications for a majority. He states, “The moral empire of the majority is founded in part on the idea that there is more enlightenment and wisdom in many men united than in one alone” (236).…

Charles Dickens, Alexis De Tocqueville, and Fanny Trollope is how they all experienced the travels across the Atlantic Ocean into the newly found United States. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century was a gruesome, life-threatening endeavor for all travelers, regardless of wealth or health. Deciding whether to make the journey may have been harder. In 1831, Alexis De Tocqueville sailed for America aboard the Schooner LE Havre. Alexis De Tocqueville traveled to…

Civilization Badge Session One 2016-2017 Signatures: MS:___________________________________ MS:___________________________________ LP/Guide:_______________________________ Badge Requirements Earning a Civilization Badge For each Civilization Badge: Lead at least one Socratic Civilization Discussion where your group agrees you were well prepared and submit the Launch, Socratic Questions and Close you prepared. For each discussion you don't lead: Post your answers to the research question plus…

irresistible because to them it seems the most continuous, the oldest, and the most permanent fact known in history” (Democracy in America 3). Here Tocqueville presents the inexorability of democracy. In essence, democracy is a continuously expanding force where “all events, like all men, serve its development.” (Democracy in America 6). Most importantly, Tocqueville argues that democracy is not upheld without purpose. It is essentially “a sign of [God's] will” (Democracy in America 6) and…

Both Alexis de Tocqueville and Karl Marx examine the social change that nations go through either as a result of democracy diminishing Aristocratic ages or because of the wide spread of industrial capitalism. However, Marx and Tocqueville observe the impact of these social changes on the community differently. Marx writings are about how the European world was changing during his lifespan. He observes how the beginning of the Industrial Revolution creates an increase in the level of economic…

The United States political system is distinct from those that exist in other countries. Alexis De Tocqueville tried to explain why democracy developed in the United States and why it is unique from others around the world; Seymour Martin Lipset attempted to explain how the United States was able to legitimize political power, set up a national identity, and the advantages it had over other countries in doing so; Edward S. Greenberg attempted to explain liberalism in America and how it is…