Jeffrey Zhao 04/20/14Word Count: 1392Question 2: Tyranny of the Majority Alexis de Tocqueville's comprehensive study Democracy in America analyzes American people and institutions in light of their significance for the development of democracy, which Tocqueville sees as an irresistible trend that will define the future of Western civilization. For Tocqueville, America is the democratic country par excellence, where democracy received its most complete expression and where in particular the principles of equality and sovereignty of the people were carried "unhindered [to] their final consequences" (58). One of the most significant consequences is the power of the “majority,” an entity made up of the American people but which can also take on a life of its own and, in turn, control the individuals from whom it derives its existence. For Tocqueville the rise of the majority is an important new threat in humanity's struggle against despotism, which reworks the dynamics of freedom and equality, oppression and obedience, posing completely new challenges not only in the political sphere but on a spiritual or 'soul as well. In his discussion of the evils shown and yet to be expected from the tyranny of the majority, perhaps the most important one Tocqueville draws attention to is the sense of degradation of character, a vulgarity born of equality that is unique to the American citizen. At its most formal level the majority exercises this tyranny in its control over the legislative branch, but it has virtually unlimited influence on the thoughts and feelings of citizens. Tocqueville comments that “the moral authority of the majority is based in part on the notio… middle of the paper… aspects of our current reality that covers both ends of the spectrum of possibilities. Tocqueville was astute in identifying the central issues of American democracy, but seemingly more confused in his absolutist conception of their potential outcomes. His image of America is well examined and his fears were legitimate, but he failed to appreciate the role of human adaptability and conscientiousness, which deserve as much recognition as weakness and inertia in predicting the future. Just as Tocqueville knew that America could not produce a Goethe, but saw no possibility of a Whitman or a Melville, so his assessment of American civil society appears sound and troubling, but at the same time rather mechanistic or mechanistic. determinist. De Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America. Trans. George Lawrence. Harper & Row Publishers, 1966.