Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho
Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho
Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho
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all individuals are considered as equal and independent. However, as<br />
Tocqueville observes, this apparent “individualization” of society <strong>do</strong>es<br />
not mean anarchy for Democratic society. On the contrary, a societal<br />
power inevitably rises out of the atomic conditions of individuals. In<br />
the place of the King or the Lord, “the people” as a whole claims the<br />
supremacy. Individuals are powerless and nameless in this abstract<br />
mass of “the people.” Regarding this, Tocqueville remarks: “what I<br />
most reproach in Democratic government, as it has been organized in<br />
the United States, is not, as many people in Europe claim, its weakness,<br />
but on the contrary, its irresistible force.” (2000, 241)<br />
Indeed, as some commentators have pointed out (Bendix 1964;<br />
Aron 1965) the transition from aristocratic and Democratic society in<br />
Tocqueville could be considered as a transition of different types of<br />
authority. While the first indicates the <strong>do</strong>mination by a power based<br />
upon inequality of conditions, the latter is conditioned by equality<br />
among individuals. The critical difference between the two kinds of<br />
power, then, is: the first is usually checked by various kinds of powers<br />
and constrained by long-standing customs and religion; whereas in<br />
the Democratic society, power tends to be extreme and unstoppable, as<br />
it only faces weak individuals and finds its new name in “the people.”<br />
Tocqueville calls this extremeness of Democratic power “Democratic<br />
despotism.”<br />
As Tocqueville analyzes, despotism in Democratic society would<br />
be a totally new kind of despotism. Different from despotism in ancient<br />
times, it can no longer be grasped in the “arbitrariness” of power.<br />
Power in <strong>Democracy</strong> usually has a law; only the law finds no limits in<br />
regulating peoples’ lives. It tries to eliminate voluntary initiatives and<br />
individuality among people and to make all subjects uniform. In this<br />
way, the new despotism is absolutely more formidable than any form of<br />
despotism that we know. Tocqueville depicts the state of “Democratic<br />
despotism” as follows:<br />
29<br />
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE’S<br />
NOTION OF POLITICAL<br />
FREEDOM<br />
Demin Duan<br />
I want to imagine with what new features despotism could be produced in<br />
the world: I see an innumerable crowd of like and equal men who revolve<br />
on themselves without repose, procuring the small and vulgar pleasures<br />
with which they fill their souls. Each of them, withdrawn and apart, is like<br />
a stranger to the destiny of all the others: his children and his particular