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Alexis de Tocqueville (view source)
Revision as of 16:21, October 22, 2017
, 16:21, October 22, 2017Democratic despotism/Administrative despotism
==French Revolution==
==French Revolution==
Tocqueville was a staunch opponent of the [[French Revolution]] and later [[Socialist]] doctrines, and noted the similarities between the two. He also noted the similarities in the two ideologies, in particular, their contempt for private property.<ref>The state of society in France before the Revolution of 1789, ch. 18</ref>
Tocqueville was a staunch opponent of the [[French Revolution]] and later [[Socialist]] doctrines, and noted the similarities between the two. He also noted the similarities in the two ideologies, in particular, their contempt for private property.<ref>The state of society in France before the Revolution of 1789, ch. 18</ref>
==Democratic despotism==
After having traveled through and studied life in America and contrasted it with the old world, Tocqueville came to the realization that there was one form of despotism above all others that a free country would have to worry about. He termed this as ''[[Administrative despotism]]'':
<blockquote>Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions: they want to be led, and they wish to remain free. As they cannot destroy either the one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once. They devise a sole, tutelary, and all-powerful form of government, but elected by the people. They combine the principle of centralization and that of popular sovereignty; this gives them a respite: they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflection that they have chosen their own guardians. Every man allows himself to be put in leading-strings, because he sees that it is not a person or a class of persons, but the people at large who hold the end of his chain.<br />
By this system the people shake off their state of dependence just long enough to select their master and then relapse into it again. A great many persons at the present day are quite contented with this sort of compromise between administrative despotism and the sovereignty of the people; and they think they have done enough for the protection of individual freedom when they have surrendered it to the power of the nation at large.<ref>[http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/DETOC/ch4_06.htm Democracy in America], Chapter VI</ref></blockquote>
==Tocqueville on Christianity==
==Tocqueville on Christianity==