Alexis De Tocqueville's Democracy In America

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Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat wrote a book, Democracy in America, after visiting in 1831 and later codified his observations and findings publishing into two volumes, 5 years apart. This book is said to be one of the most defining and significant books documenting American political life. Tocqueville began to gravitate towards studying America and her stable democratic policies and liberties. In France, his homeland was having troubles with democracy and he theorized that democracy will be an inevitable and imminent revolution around the world for the future so after gaining a grant from France he traveled across America to study Democracy. In his work Tocqueville began to admire and grow a deep sentiment attached to the idea of American Democracy and he wanted to understand its flaws and shortcomings as well as the answers to these problems or at least a stable idea of what is needed for a democracy to work. All of this …show more content…
The power of an ideal American democratic government is sovereignty; this gives the people the responsibility to derive educated and qualified decisions of whom they wish to run their government by placing them into roles of power, such as the role of President or State Mayor. Tocqueville hints that people won’t always make the best decisions on electing people for positions of power. Thusly he believed that democracy would not work if the people are not motivated enough to be educated citizens and vote in a man they believe that shoulder their views of running the government. Ignorance of the people was one of the flaws of the people who would just flock to the majority at the slightest provocation of their idea being expressed. Since people are required to

Analysis Of Alexis De Tocqueville's Democracy In America

In Alexis de Tocqueville’s great political treatise, Democracy in America, he analyzes the state of democracy within the United States of the 19th Century — noting its successes and flaws. Among these, Tocqueville discusses the potential for a decline into a despotic rule the likes of which the world had never seen before — a democratic, soft despotism. He also discusses, however, the existence of free associations between the citizens of a democracy, and suggests that such associations act as a…

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Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America Essay

Alexis de Tocqueville's visit to the United States in the early part of the nineteenth century prompted his work Democracy in America, in which he expressed the ability to make democracy work. Throughout his travels Tocqueville noted that private interest and personal gain motivated the actions of most Americans, which in turn cultivated a strong sense of individualism. Tocqueville believed that this individualism would soon "sap the virtue of public life" (395) and create a despotism of selfishness…

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Alexis De Tocqueville Analysis

confess that in America I saw more than America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress”. Alexis De Tocqueville along with the help of Gustave De Beaumont sent out to study America and the essence of America. For nine months these two young Frenchmen traveled the New World, speaking to Presidents, bankers lawyers and newly settled communities. Alexis De Tocqueville…

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Alexis De Tocqueville: Democracy In America

Democracy in America written by Alexis de Tocqueville gives insight into the strengths and weakness of American democracy. Given a grant by the French government, de Tocqueville traveled to the United States with his friend Gustave de Beaumont to observe the effects American democracy had on its people, and to point out the strengths and weakness of the system that governed them. In his home country France, democracy seemed to be exotic and new. But, he believed that democracy would be the future…

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Exterior Configuration Of North America Summary

Alexis de Tocqueville was a French politician, landowner, farmer, and political writer. He was sent to America to analyze the America’s prison system, but Tocqueville was far more interested in its American Democracy that he analyzed that in far more detail. He composed a book containing his thoughts and opinions, but remained un-sided as he explained that he was simply an observer. In chapter one of Alexia de Tocqueville’s book Democracy in America, the title is named “Exterior Configuration of…

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Tocqueville Equality

As the “Leader of the Free World,” America is seen as the beacon of equality and democracy throughout the world. It is constantly touted by politicians that America is the example that all nations should follow, where a dirt poor citizen can become a multimillionaire with just enough “hard work.” The constant rhetoric today that the “American Dream” is still available to all citizens, no matter their race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender identification is extremely misleading…

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American Exceptionalism Tocqueville Summary

American Exceptionalism was coined by Alexis de Tocqueville in his book Democracy in America. To illustrate how the American way of thought is superior to the other ways of the world, Tocqueville expresses that the American way of thought is distinctively unique and special. This distinction is exemplified through liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism, and Laissez-Faire Economics. These qualities prove America’s exceptionality and difference from other countries. Although American Exceptionalism…

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Politics: United States Declaration of Independence and Government Essay example

Short Answer: 1. In Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, “mores” are understood as customary rules of behavior or social norms. These “mores” are the foundation of the social contract that allows mankind to create a civil society and eventually form government. 2. Tocqueville argued that Puritanism was closely related to political theory because of the way churches were formed. Puritans would simply vote on the idea of adopting another church. This method was very democratic compared to the…

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Charles Carroll's Impact On Colonial America

thrilled, and many saw a chance for the birth of freedom and a home of the free. Individuals like Charles Carroll saw the opening of the door for a land that could be the representation of a democracy that many Greeks reveled over centuries before, and believed that he could be one that can inhibit the America that we know today despite his practice of Roman Catholicism in an extremely Protestant colony. Charles Carroll would become the political activist and democrat from his beginnings in early…

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Ap World History Dbq Research Paper

As the United States rapidly changes and develops both political and economic change reshapes American society. Between 1820 starting with James Taylor as President to 1848 with Zachary Taylor as president, multiple political influences such as Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and John Quincy Adams influenced society and the United States economically. The struggles between Congress and the presidency as well as women rights have made twenty eight years of successful change in the United States. The…

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