Democracy in America

During the third wave of democratization, a transformation of political institutions to democracies in the developing world, the majority of countries in Latin America shifted from military regimes to democracies. While Latin America has been identified as the third most democratic region in the world, after Western Europe and North America, democracy in the region must overcome huge obstacles Western counterparts do not experience as harshly, such as widespread poverty, poor education, and…

Well, some Latin Americans can because they have experienced it. The very government they were dependent on for protection and stability sponsored their demise. The government enabled the military regime to act violently against civilians of Latin America. Centrist officers were supporting the miltary coup. “Despite variations in structure and personnel, all were coalitions of military officers, technocratic administration, and old-line politicians” (Skidmore 337). Besides the military, the…

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 would eventually…

According to Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America, a democratic society has various characteristics such as individualism and a single-minded pursuit of material wealth. These two characteristics can cause certain dangers to a democratic society such as a despotic and absolute government and also unhappiness. Alexis de Tocqueville in his book Democracy in America presents a behavior that occurs in democratic America. This behavior is called individualism, which is a “reflective and…

Tocqueville was a French aristocrat, who wrote the book “Democracy in America”. This was Tocqueville’s extensive research on America’s Democracy in 1835. Tocqueville explained the positive and negatives about America’s democracy. One point he made was how democracy is “free and natural” (Tocqueville 143). Democracy gives people the voice to choose who they want to lead their country, local, or state government. A negative aspect of America’s democracy is the difference in the three social…

How democratic is America? It’s a question which seems simple, but when we examine it, it becomes a much more complex problem. People often define democracy in different ways. Howard Zinn and Sidney Hook, both famous historians, are two of those who define it quite differently. Howard Zinn chooses to define it as a set of criteria that examine the quality of life of our citizens, whether that is access to information, or equal pay. Hook on the other hand chooses to examine it in a more…

Most parts of Latin America have been struggling to implement or enforce democracy for the past century. The most notable examples are Argentina and Chile. Many political scientists have argued that this is mostly due to internal factors such as the corporatist culture and lack of proper structural reforms, but they do not include external pressures from the international sphere to curb communist influence in Latin America. In this paper, I will argue that from the coup in Chile in 1973 to the…

In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville records his observations on American society and culture of the 1830’s. Throughout his analysis of America, he draws many outlandish and interesting conclusions regarding life during this time period. For example, in Chapter 18, Tocqueville remarks that citizens in democratic societies are independent, which makes them weak and subsequently uninfluential in society. He goes on to say that in order to combat this, associations must be established to…

Americans now had protected rights and liberties and they elected their government. In America, democracy changed the social economic and political equality. This became a way of life for many living on the American frontier. Americans were happy to be free but their view of freedom was changing. What changer their view? The market revolution, the population moving to the west and the rise of the political democracy. These ideas helped reshape Americans view of freedom but American freedom was…

Religion in Relation to Democracy In Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville, Tocqueville says that religion is needed in democracy for a democracy to function well and not fall into tyranny. Although he says this, he makes the point to say that there are certain things about religion that will need to be changed before it is suitable for democracy. The first of his changes is as follows, “It is therefore particularly in centuries of democracy that it is important not to allow the…