John Stuart Mill And Tocqueville Analysis

After the French Revolution, many theorists believed the world continued to face the battle of fighting tyranny. English philosopher John Stuart Mill published his famous work On Liberty to write about the limits the government has on exercising power of individuals and the threat of tyranny. Although Tocqueville traveled to the United States to examine prisons, he wanted to gain insights on American democracy to apply his observations to enhance France’s unsuccessful democratic government. Karl Marx was a German philosopher who wrote the Communist Manifesto to explain his theory of Communism and the necessary steps to take to obtain equality and freedom for every individual in society. John Stuart Mill and Tocqueville advocate for a society

In Mill’s ideal government, there each individual is allowed to do anything they wish as long it does not directly harm another citizen or violate their rights (On Liberty, 55). In order for the members of society to have a maximum potential of freedom, the only restrictions set by the government are those that keep individuals from mistreating or harming one another. John Stuart Mill advocates for the freedom of thought because allowing diversity of opinion can help discover new truths that may benefit society. The suppression of ideas puts society at great risk for silencing potential truths (On Liberty, 19). He argues that there have been truths that were persecuted as false views in the past that are now considered true views because “truth always triumphs over persecution(On Liberty 29).” He believes that in order for a true idea to hold its strength, there must be contradictory ideas continuously challenging its veracity (On Liberty, 30). Through experience and discussion, people can dissolve truths or portions of a truths, and use that knowledge to be one step closer to answering complicated and highly questions including: morals, religion, social relations, business of life, and politics (On Liberty,37). We only have true liberty, if opinions are allowed to be shared and debated, to allow mankind to

Tocqueville believes the universal equality of the social conditions sets the foundation of the potential the political tyranny of the majority in American democratic government (Democracy for America, 287). The political force in various countries is divided, but in the United States, all the power of the government is reigned by the people (Democracy for America, 64). Americans believe that the “theory of equality applied to intelligence” properly demonstrates that there is less wisdom and enlightenment in one man than there is in a body of men (Democracy for America, 284). Tocqueville feared that the moral power of the majority will cause individuals to be afraid to present contradictions when in disagreement with the majority’s tastes and opinions (Democracy for America, 290). Since the legitimate power is in the hands of the majority, they have the ability to remove the liberties of certain groups of minorities if they chose to discriminate against them. Tocqueville argues that if the absolute power is put into one man and he is able to abuse his power against certain individuals, the same concept is applicable to granting the power to the majority of the