Democracy in America

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Democracy in America

Throughout the course of history, mankind has been recorded to corrupt itself. Men have grown tired of simply surviving; they have had to take and conquer others. Absolute monarchies control wealth, land, and even lives of men. The conditions of the people were solely dependent on the conditions of the one who was in power in that particular place and time. History has proven that most men rule unwisely in their kingdoms. To avoid tyrannical rule, some make an attempt to set up a government in which the people ruled themselves. This form of government is called a democracy, or “rule of the people.” History has also revealed through the Greeks and the French Revolution, that a democracy that gives complete power to the people, “absolute democracy”, is nothing more than a short prelude to tyranny.

A new democracy was established in America with certain unique characteristics in its structure and establishment. America’s tyranny never came. America’s duration of holding to its original form of government, since the time of the Constitution, evolved from a near insignificant point in human history, to an era power not in a man, but rather in free men, every one in America for over 200 years. The question of every great historian then is this, “How has America’s democracy thrived when all others previous to it has failed?”1 A brilliant young historian from France devoted a major portion of his life to answer this world changing mystery. Alexis de Tocqueville revealed to Europe, which characteristics instilled in American democracy must be modeled in order to construct a proper institution of government in any nation. He did this in his work, Democracy in America.

Alexis de Tocqueville was born in Paris on July 29, 1805. Tocqueville’s father was a royalist prefect from Normandy who supported the Boubon monarchy, his great-grandfather was a liberal aristocrat killed in the French Revolution, and his mother was a devout Roman Catholic who strongly advocated a return on the Old Regime. In 1835, the first part of Democracy in America was published. A highly positive and optimistic account of American government and society, the book was very well received throughout Europe. “In 1840 the second part of Democracy in America was published. This volume was substantially more pessimistic than the first, warning of the dangers des...

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...o take advantage of their given powers. We can see today how the proud and selfish demand special rights and privileges and receiving them more and more often. Fortunately, those with a current passion for liberty and equality are speaking out against Egotism.

Alexis de Tocqueville had noticed the democracy in two nations. He saw one succeed, and another fail. But the interesting and somewhat haunting fact still remains. The failure of America could very possibly begin. The equal opportunity for everyone American citizen to do what was and still is the basic foundation of the success of the democracy in America. If we ignore these rights, we will fall prey to the uncertain evils that wait for our destruction. Many because of the stand it takes to secure freedom for all hate America. Not all attacks to are made by men with guns and planes. The most destructive enemies are those that bring false ideas of complacency and doubt in the hearts and the minds of the American people. If we would read, study, and learn from people like Alexis de Tocqueville and our founding fathers, we would be ready to fight those false ideas and instill a possible hope to the generations to come.

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