Tocqueville's Philosophy - Essay Example

Tocqueville's Philosophy The book Democracy in America provides an in-depth and deeply troubling examination of the democratic man’s soul. According to Tocqueville, men that live in the age of equality are simply self-conscious mortals that miserable. These men are quite desperate to achieve material affluence leading them to resort to imagining near endless success possibilities of which very few ever come to pass. Tocqueville’s democratic man undergoes constant anxiety that has been brought about by his limited awareness of his own limitations and his gradual isolation from others in both historical and social time. Tocqueville observes that the society’s change from a feudal aristocracy to a democracy only serves to deepen and sharpen the democratic man’s psychological state. Both the underlying equality logic and the impacts of the disintegration of the feudal aristocratic state serve to fan the anxiety that is latent in the man’s situation by contributing onto the status obsession (Tocqueville, 124). Tocqueville argues that the aristocratic period placed horizons and boundaries around and before all by linking everyone from the lowly peasant to the highly placed king in one single chain. This system served to permanently place men in both their social and historical place. This is because aristocratic men always preserve an overall historical awareness of their ancestors as well as their descendants. In this kind of society, each of the existing classes is permanently firmly limited and each subject is assigned a fixed station that is often in a hierarchical manner that serves to ensure that there will always be a person above him who will accord him the necessary protection as well as another one underneath him whose help may sometimes be required (Tocqueville 173). Democracy serves to radically impose itself, breaking the preexisting links thus freeing each and every link available. In the equality age, men do not have to contend with any preexisting boundaries instead the new system opens newly available opportunities that accord them a chance at wealth accumulation and social mobility. Main Discussion The French philosopher Tocqueville embarked on a very ambitious task when he decided to pen a book on Democracy in America. He gave himself this task having seen the unsuccessful attempts to have democratic governance in his native home so he wanted to gain valuable insights on how democracy works by studying a prosperous and stable democracy. These studies led him to the conclusion that while America has made tremendous progress towards equality of conditions and democracy, this is a global phenomenon that could not be halted. Due to this fact, he decided to more closely analyze this phenomenon in order to come up with its strengths as well as dangers so that various governments could be well informed to counteract the existing weaknesses as well as reinforce its strengths (Tocqueville, 2002). The book conveys one main theme which is the conservation of human liberties amidst a fast growing of inequalities of conditions. The first volume tends to concentrate on the government and institutional structures that assist in the preservation of freedoms and liberties in the American society. The second volume concentrates on people and the democratic mentality’s effects on their morals and thoughts in the society (Tocqueville, 113). Tocqueville is of the view that the main problems that plague democracy are;-an excessively high amount of power is allocated to the legislative branch, an excessive push for equality, and high levels of individualism as well as rampant materialism. The key elements that he believes can effectively check these excesses are: an influential and independent judiciary, a strong executive arm of the government, de-centralization of the administration, a fairly autonomous local self-government, a free press, healthy religion as well as highly educated women. Most of problems in democracies tend to lie in societal tendencies and attitudes but there are also some institutional deficiencies that that contribute to this. The key institutional deficiency is the quality of legislative power. Most democracies tend to accord the legislature almost unchecked levels of power since it is deemed as the representative of the people’s will. Most fail to realize that just like any other institution if left unchecked, this arm of the government can swiftly mutate to become tyrannical (Tocqueville 125). Another constitutional defect that weakens the executive’s interdependence and hence unintentionally increases the legislature’s power is the practice of having the president re-elected. It is not however obvious how this ability to re-elect the presidency weakens the power of the presidency. At first glance it may appear to consolidate its influence and power by permitting the president to hold onto office for a much longer period of time. The downside is that if he hopes to be re-elected for a second term, he will not be able to exercise much of abilities to make decisions that are independent and solely based on his personal judgments (Tocqueville 217). He will have to act on the whims of people and the legislature so as to appease them even though these third parties may not possess the required knowledge to make decisions that are best suited for the country’s future. This shows that allowing the president more than one term increases those undesirable effects of the majority’s tyranny. Another issue with the organization of the country’s democracy is the direct election of the people’s representatives and their short office duration or tenure. This leads to their hands being tied since they cannot act according to their best judgment due to the fact that they have to be regularly worrying about the electorate’s opinions of their actions. This view is supported by the fact that the senate, which has members that are indirectly elected and tend to serve much longer office terms, is largely composed of well-educated and intelligent citizens. It will therefore be necessary to adopt a system of in-direct election for the various other representatives as well. This will ensure that there will be less contradictory and mediocre laws across the several jurisdictions (Tocqueville, 2002). The much more intangible threat that faces democracies is their excessive liking for universal equality. The prevailing institutional deficiencies are actually the symptoms of the deeper mindset of excessive equality that a vast majority of all democratic societies tend to possess. It should be reminded that if everyone is equal in these societies, then no single individual has the basis to claim to rule over all the other equals. The only fair means to run a society is to base all the final decisions on the will of the majority. The major problem with this method is that it can very easily lead to despotism. This can be brought by either one person or a multitude of people in power. The threat of despotism in democracies is more likely to come from the majority (Tocqueville 129). If there is absence of checks on power of the ruling majority to directly exert influence on the government, they will then exercise absolute power which the minority will be virtually helpless to counter. Another fact is that there will be the tendency to always assume that the opinion supported by the ruling majority is always the best for the society’s future. This will lead to the abandonment of the freedom of thought at an individual level. This is because it will be seen as an indirect assertion of the superiority of one’s opinion if that opinion goes against the majority’s opinion. This will be seen as a direct contradiction of the principle of equality. This new form of ‘democratic’ tyranny is even worse than the previous tyrannies that made use of brutality and physical coercion (Tocqueville 202). Tocqueville famously claimed, “Formerly tyranny used the clumsy weapons of chains and hangmen; nowadays even despotism, though it seemed to have nothing to learn, has been perfected by civilization under the absolute government of a single man, despotism, to reach the soul, clumsily struck at the body, and the soul, escaping from such glows, rose gloriously above it; but in democratic republics that is not at all how tyranny behaves; it leaves the body alone and goes straight for the soul.” (Tocqueville 201) Tocqueville however recognizes institutions that can go a long way in preserving liberty in the midst of all these despotic tendencies. An independent judiciary that has powers of judicial review is very significant. This is because this institution can rule certain enacted laws to be unconstitutional. The American Supreme Court is actually the only existing check that can tame the tyranny of the majority. The judges serving in this institution are appointed with security of tenure serving life terms. This aspect gives them a good amount independence in making decisions that are in the best interest of the country and its people without the distraction of having to constantly worry about the opinion of the public (Tocqueville, 2002). A much more related institution in the American justice system is the jury. The jury may not always provide the best method of getting justice but they serve a vital political function of forcing the public to have in mind other citizens’ affairs and serve a purpose of educating the public on the reasonable use of their freedoms. This is the main reason that Tocqueville is of the opinion that the jury system is the most effective method of public education. The decentralization of administrative work also allows the local citizenry to exercise self-government much more frequently. However, the main existing difference between France and America is the availability of local liberties in the American system. He attributes the French Revolution’s failure to the excessive centralization of administration that denied the public the chance to exercise their freedoms thus making them to gradually forget to how to properly exercise these local liberties (Tocqueville 222). The Non-institutional aspects that go a long way in maintaining freedoms in the U.S are the freedom of the pres, right of association and quite significantly, religion. This is because associations are a very effective tool in combating the problem of individualism since it allows people to actively use their freedoms by participating in politics. The free press is the backbone of these associations since these associations use it to communicate with its members as well as with each other and also disseminating their messages to the nation as whole (Tocqueville, 132). Religion is the tool that provides some moral standards which are absolutely vital in preventing the onset of despotism. Conclusion A person can see that most of the strands of American democracy converge when looking at the relationship between equality and freedom in the society. Tocqueville has an undying love for liberty and looks at the trends that can possible dismantle it but also examines ways by which they can be preserved. Work Cited Tocqueville, Alexis, Harvey C. Mansfield, and Delba Winthrop. Democracy in America. Chicago, Ill. [u.a.: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2002. Print. Read More