De Tocqueville's Views on America Reaction Paper

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The criticisms that de Tocqueville levels against American society, and especially against some of the particulars of its governance, continue in his discussion of the potential tyranny of the majority. Americans regard the majority much as Europeans viewed their king, according to de Tocqueville: it can do no wrong, and any wrong it does do is only due to bad advice or information. This subservience, according to de Tocqueville, creates the potential for a majority to rob a minority of its rights through legal means. While this danger certainly exists, however, de Tocqueville fails to demonstrate how it is worse than the tyranny of a monarch.

In addition to the arguments and political observation that de Tocqueville makes, there are other key features of Democracy in America that stand out to the modern reader as interesting tidbits of information, and aspects of American history that have perhaps not been fully explored in the past. The detail that de Tocqueville provides regarding the Federalist and Anti-Federalist parties, for instance, makes the history seem much more recent and alive (which, of course, it was in de Tocqueville's time); gazing at the famous Federalist Papers and their answers today does not provide the same palpable feel of political struggle that exists between current political parties, and this book helps the reader to realize that the issues were just as passionately debated then. Another interesting revelation to many readers is the fact that the press was presumably still quite limited in Europe during America's early years.

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De Tocqueville's comments on the free state of the press that he encounters in the United States imply that this is definitely not the case elsewhere, which is somewhat difficult to imagine giving the now automatic-seeming right and ability to publish and disseminate information freely. Though there are of course countries today that restrict their journalists and citizens in their pursuit of information and publication, it is still difficult to imagine a Europe after the Enlightenment without a free press.

Democracy in America recounts a very specific view of early United States' history. There is a great deal of objective observation available in the text, if one can sift out the political and rhetorical material. The book is highly interesting and significant for this material as well, however, and has remained a classic of education and political though for this very reason......

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