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Majority Rule Tocqueville Analysis

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Does Majority Rule threaten Liberty?
Brian Shuffler
University of the Pacific
American Political Thought – 134
Professor Becker

Does Majority Rule threaten Liberty?
Our Constitution was designed to check majority rule and to stymie the ascendency of primacy in our society. According to the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” . This proclamation is the bedrock and principle that our democracy was founded on.
Arguably, James Madison and Alexis De Tocqueville were both concerned about the dangers of majority rule and how majoritarianism …show more content…

Impossibility of conceiving a mixed government. Sovereign power must be placed somewhere. Precautions which one should take to moderate its action. These precautions have not been taken in the United Stated. Result thereof” . Tocqueville was concern about the tyranny of the majority, citing the government of the United States that without some form of checks and balances it could possibly lead to the suppression of the minority. He writes, “What is a majority on its collective capacity, if not an individual with opinions, and usually with interests, contrary to those of another individual, called the minority?” . He is apprehensive about the lack of guarantees against tyranny and how to preserve individual freedoms in the United …show more content…

They had both recognized that the solution was in setting boundaries to power that no person or group must hold the bulk of power. The key is in restriction of power amongst competing interests. Madison’s idea of a republican style government based on the principles of the Virginia Plan, which was incorporated into the Constitution, did not quite achieve the objectives of a government with checks and balances to guard against the consolidation of factions. Today our contemporary politics are still influenced by factions (interest groups the ones that adverse to public

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A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism” (Basler,

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Meaning, there has not been a small minority standing in the way of the most recent amendments. As this nation progresses into new political realities, the protection of an overwhelming majority cannot be abandoned. The decision by Democrats in 2013 and then Republicans in 2017 to use the “nuclear option” and changing Senate rules in order to approve Presidential nominees is an example of an irresponsible step, creating a more polarized and partisan nation. This

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He puts forward the idea of “freedom of opinion” (Tocqueville 106) and constitutes it as “independence of mind and real freedom of discussion” (Tocqueville 104). Unlike Locke, this stretches far beyond what is done. Tocqueville is careful to differentiate this liberty from the freedom of speech, as this freedom from opinion is more meant to indicate the freedom to follow different paths of thought and not be unfairly judged for it. Once again, it is the majority who suppresses this in Tocqueville’s opinion, as scorn and persecution for unwanted opinions permeate throughout society (Tocqueville 105). Tocqueville’s entanglement of liberty and what is right means that a majority’s limitation of liberty is unjust, while Locke’s concept of liberty means it must necessarily be restrained by a majority in order to protect the principle aim of government, to protect

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Problems in America only grew worse when democracy was being added to the mixture of already complicated politics. In Woody Holton’s book, Unruly American and the Origins of the Constitution, he stated that, “many Americans. . . were growing ‘tired of an excess of democracy,’ a ‘prevailing rage of excessive democracy. . .’ [or] ‘democratical tyranny.’” Democracy was an attempt at home rule among the colonies, but not everyone was happy with this extreme excess of colonial citizens contribution to the government.

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