SOCI 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Alexis De Tocqueville, Meddle
Document Summary
You have a central government of some kind that deals with the general interest. Governments usually want to meddle with local affairs. Danger in france is that the king spent his whole reign trying to take power away from every local government and authority in. Got away with it because french were so used to being subjects and not citizens. Produces people who don"t fight for freedom. Tocqueville believes that bureaucracies keep people from taking initiative and works against practicing for freedom, because people get stuck in the habit of waiting for someone to tell them what to do. America is a country of citizens that take matters into their own hands. People together struggling to change their political condition. Tocqueville was a devout inner catholic, believed in the inner principles that is inside you that makes you moral. Believed religion is a vital power for a lot of what we strive for; natural to the human heart as hope.
