Table of Contents
What did Alexis de Tocqueville admire about America?
Alexis de Tocqueville most admired the democracy of America, and the ability for Americans to be free of designations of class, and the ease in which one could acquire a fortune. He feared that industrialism would create a large class of dependent words and a small group of new aristocrats.
What is Alexis de Tocqueville most famous for?
Introduction. Alexis de Tocqueville is best known for Democracy in America, which he wrote after spending 10 months of 1831 and 1832 in the United States on a mission from France to study American prisons (then considered progressive).
What is the thesis of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America?
In Democracy in America, de Toqueville’s main thesis is that the United States has, unlike France, developed a working, viable democracy and republic (non-monarchial state). He asks why this might be, and he comes up with several answers; he feels these answers will be useful for the European states.
What was Alexis de Tocqueville’s official purpose for being in the United States?
In 1831 an ambitious and unusually perceptive twenty-five-year-old French aristocrat visited the United States. Alexis de Tocqueville’s official purpose was to study the American penal system, but his real interest was America herself.
What did de Tocqueville say about American society?
He admired American individualism but warned that a society of individuals can easily become atomized and paradoxically uniform when “every citizen, being assimilated to all the rest, is lost in the crowd.” He felt that a society of individuals lacked the intermediate social structures—such as those provided by …
What aspect of American society is most striking to Tocqueville?
But for Tocqueville the most striking condition of American society was equality.
How did Tocqueville define democracy?
In these works, Tocqueville explains the origins and character of modern life in the “Christian universe,” which he believes is dominated by a single fact: the “equality of conditions,” or democracy. Tocqueville understands democracy not merely as self-government but as a comprehensive way of life.
How does Tocqueville define democracy?
What aspect of American society is most striking to Tocqueville quizlet?
But for Tocqueville the most striking condition of American society was equality. Tocqueville was amazed at American society’s pluralism.
What is the main idea of Democracy in America?
Equality of Conditions and Political Equality Alexis de Tocqueville declares that political equality, pervasive in America, provides the strong foundation for democracy, a system of government in which sovereignty resides with the people and decisions are made by majority rule.
What are the main points of democracy?
He describes democracy as a system of government with four key elements: i) A system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; ii) Active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life; iii) Protection of the human rights of all citizens; and iv) A rule of law in …
What are the 5 concepts of democracy?
Recognition of the fundamental worth and dignity of every person; 2. Respect for the equality of all persons 3. Faith in majority rule and an insistence upon minority rights 4. Acceptance of the necessity of compromise; and 5.