Constitutionalism: The Tyranny Of The Majority :: essays research papers

In this distil from Democracy in America Alexis Tocqueville expresses his sentiments about the join States democratic government. Tocqueville believes the governments temper exists in the absolute supremacy of the majority, meaning that those citizens of the United States who are of effective age control legislation passed by the government. However, the power of the majority nooky exceed its limits. Tocqueville believed that the United States was a land of equality, liberty, and political wisdom. He considered it be a land where the government only served as the voice of the its citizens. He compares the government of the US to that of European governances. To him, European governments were still constricted by aristocratic privilege, the people had no hand in the formation of their government, let alone, in that location every day lives. He held up the American system as a successful model of what aristocratic European systems would ineluctably become, systems of democracy and social equality. Although he held the American democratic system in high regards, he did have his concerns about the systems shortcomings. Tocqueville feared that the virtues he honored, such as creativity, freedom, civic participation, and taste, would be endangered by "the tyranny of the majority." In the United States the majority rules, but whose their to rule the majority. Tocqueville believed that the majority, with its unlimited power, would unavoidably turn into a tyranny. He felt that the moral beliefs of the majority would interfere with the quality of the select legislators. The idea was that in a great number of men there was more intelligence, than in one individual, thus lacking quality in legislation. Another disadvantage of the majority was that the interests of the majority always were preferred to that of the minority. Therefore, bounteous the minority no chance to voice concerns.