Political Science 2237E Lecture Notes - Alexis De Tocqueville
8 Jul 2014
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Document Summary
Tocqueville"s democracy is the first to make democracy a central theme in political theory ever. We currently live in the era of democracy because everyone uses it but uses it differently; we entered this era with the birth of the us. Tocqueville asked whether this era would be one of democratic freedom or democratic tyranny ?>>this echoed from j. s. The problem is the opposite of elitism (a system wherein a group of privileged individuals does not serve the public but creates it): populism is rule by the average man>>both of these are examples of democratic despotism. Democratic freedom is dissent; as it currently exists, elite groups manipulate the public or the populists manipulate the public>>there is no room for tolerance. Derrida believes that freedom must be found in the struggle of thinking freely; freedom is only available to you in effort, in dissenting; embracing active struggle makes democratic freedom possible.
