Essay On Alexis De Tocqueville Equality Of Conditions

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“Running through the pages of our history, there is hardly an important event in the last seven hundred years which has not turned out to be advantageous for equality.”(11) Democracy, or as defined by Alexis De Tocqueville “equality of conditions” arose due to various seemingly unrelated events; which played an immense role in shaping the world we live in today. Tocqueville accentuates the parallel between the rise of democracy and the formation of equality, which arose due to the disintegration of aristocracy as well as the establishment of democratic liberty through municipal intuitions. Religion; especially religions of salvation have brought forth equality to the masses by establishing the idea that all men have a chance at reaching …show more content…

Tocqueville accentuates the fact that if “The sprit of man, left to follow its bent, will regulate political society and the city of god in a uniform fashion; it will, if I dare put it so, seek to harmonize earth and heaven.”(287) The spread of Catholicism in America created favorable conditions for the rise and maintenance of equality. Catholics imposed the idea of all men are equal; for they believed that “society is composed of two main elements: priests and people. The priest is raised above the faithful; all below him are equal”(288) Therefore, religion was able to maintain the “equality of conditions” which intern reinforces the idea of religions influence on politics, which justifies Tocqueville’s claim of religion as a political institution. According to Tocqueville democracy can be maintained through three main factors federal organization, communal institutions and judicial power. Tocqueville describes the federal organization as a medium of ensuring that people are able to reap the benefits of living in a great republic whilst simultaneously able to gain the security of living in a small one. Whilst the communal

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