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The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville

Book by Olivier Zunz · 1 quotes · Tocqueville, Childhood, Equality

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The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville Quotes

“To drive the point home, Tocqueville stressed the need for individual initiatives in democracy. Tocqueville had shown in his central theoretical part that democracy had severed the aristocratic chain and, with it, social hierarchies. But in concluding, he saw a multitude of atomized individuals lacking in energy and initiative. He blamed widespread popular indolence on the supervisory grip of the state on citizens' lives that amounted to soft despotism. Democratic men submitted to the authority of 'an immense tutelary power, which assumes sole responsibility for securing their pleasure and watching over their fate. It is absolute, meticulous, regular, provident, and mild. It would resemble paternal authority if only its purpose were the same, namely, to prepare men for manhood. But on the contrary, it seeks only to keep them in childhood irrevocably.”

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Book:The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville
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