In the Democracy in America, it can best be said that Alexis de Tocqueville's overall thesis was the moral dilemma that democracy, in all its self-righteous servitude to the majority, could bring. As a sort of cautionary tale, he promulgates the notions of soft despotism; that is, he entertains the idea that even though the values of egalitarianism, freedom, and democracy are so readily heralded by certain peoples and nations (particularly America), such ideals are not in themselves immune from the propagation of oppression. He felt America to be most threatened by this sociological phenomena, particularly due to its capricious culture and frontier-oriented mentality.
For Tocqueville, the (then) current trends in America were diluting the sort of elitist, landowning system of aristocracy that abutted European society. He observed that the vast availability of land, and thus money, power, and political presence, allowed for a middling mediocrity to take place. As such, the bell curve of the majority would rule with an iron fist, marginalizing minorities to an extent no too dissimilar from what was common in monarchies and dictatorships. Tocqueville saw such tyranny to be even worse than monarchies, however, because certain minorities suffering from oppression of the majority would have no one to appeal their grievances to; public opinion sways the majority, the majority sways legislation, execution, and jurisprudence, thus, caught up in its moral zeitgeist, the majority would inevitably dominate with less mercy than a king.
One example of how this applied to the United States is how the nation's legislature was organized in such a way so as to limit the terms of the representatives of both Houses of Congress. This satisfied the eager "daily passions of their constituents", further bolstering the authority of the many. Tocqueville also points out that the American electors "choose a delegate ... and impose upon him a number positive obligations which he is pledged to fulfil. ..." In this way, it seems as though "the majority of the [American] populace held its deliberations in the market place. ..." From this degree of political expedience, he thought the government to be the surrogate of the majority's agenda, allowing for near-immediate reactions to the agendas of others.
Another example of America's prodigious majority is how all parties therein fully submit to the rights and even whims of the majority. Therefore, the majority surmounts a somewhat luxurious seat of power, exercising its authority and moral influence to subvert any minority-based parties of which would otherwise prove to be a threat or an obstacle in the progression of the majority's status quo. As a result, all three branches of the United States, which in themselves are supposed to act as checks and balances of one another, are heavily outweighed by the majority's impact on society. The implications of what the majority can do to the culture, diplomatic disposition, executive ordinance, legislation, and judicial partiality in America is undeniable. Finally, from this discourse of majority-rule, Tocqueville pleadingly questioned, "When an individual or party is wronged in the United States, to whom can he apply for redress? ..." Being that all preexisting institutions and governmental agencies are but minions of the predominant populace, the afflictions and injustices bestowed upon a minority by such a predominant populace cannot be properly reproached--at least until the prevalent opinion of the majority is swayed in the minority's favor.
In his Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville conveyed to the world that its ardent reverence for democratic forms of governance should not go without careful providence. To blindly invest faith into a single ideology, no matter how just or righteous it may seem at the time, invariably leads to the same oppression and resentment from which democracy was conceived. Instead, power should be methodically relegated to trustworthy entities and agencies, permitting no one, not even the majority, to ascend the throne.
The Tyranny of the Majority
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Convoluted Blathering by Nietzsche's Peachy at 4:24 PM
Subjective Image-Concepts: essay, philosophy, politics
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