Democracy

Essay by yuda24High School, 10th gradeA+, May 2004

download word file, 3 pages 4.5 1 reviews

In current times, democracy is said to be the most just and structured form of government. However, in America's early years, the ideal democracy that the founding fathers sought to create was nothing like what it was meant to be. Alexis de Toqueville, a famous French writer and philosopher came to America and made observations about the young American form of government. While now those observations turned out to be inaccurate, at the time, his criticisms of American democracy were quite true. Therefore, de Toqueville's Democracy in America is a good analysis of democracy.

The early chapters of de Toqueville's piece are primarily dedicated to giving a background on what democracy is and how it came about. While no one is sure which exact person invented democracy, many say it was the Greek politician Thalidomide who "invented" democracy. This ideology was first put into practice by the Greeks some 3000 years ago.

In addition, de Toqueville talks about the beginnings of American democracy. The latter parts of the earlier chapters deal with America exclusively and how it started using democracy. The framework of this government was based off of Lockian theory. In addition, he tells the reader that America does not have a pure democracy because that would be unfeasible, but says that America is one of the few countries to use this form of government.

While this part of the book is really only some background facts and commentary that isn't necessary in the book, it gives a greater understanding of what is to come later in the work. Next, de Toqueville, off of his observations of the young America, pointed out some flaws in the system. First, he said that the American citizens aren't fully represented by politicians because the majority of the politicians were self-interested. So...