Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 174

A Thin Line: Freedom and Despotism
In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville presents forth numerous philosophies

regarding the nature of democracy, defining the conceptual, abstract term as equality of
conditions. Liberty and equality, he stresses, are fundamental components in the American
political structure of society, and numerous material, tangible processes attest to this fact, such as
freedom of the press. The American press grants the general public access to a tremendous
amount of power through knowledge concerning Americas political and socioeconomic state,
allowing people to decide for themselves their ideologies, beliefs, and stances. Thus, the majority
attains a great deal of power, perhaps an excess of power. However, Tocqueville argues that the
press can be just as conniving as factual, manipulating readers opinions by providing deceptive
opinions. The majoritys excess of power, alongside the medias deceptively opinionated
writings, makes for a lethal combination capable of overriding the very idea of freedom itself,
and only a decentralized press inhibits such from occurring.
Even today, countless American citizens utilize the media as an outlet for garnering
information representing variable areas of interest. Tocqueville makes clear that America
requires freedom of press in order to function as a democratic nation, owing to the fact that
limited press equates limited power to the people, and America was founded on the premise of a
sovereign population.
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This form of sovereignty is extremely beneficial to society because
readers are reliant on facts to guide them through their thought processes and actions in order to
build a strong, unified, constantly-improving nation. Because it is decentralized, the American
press fails to compel an entire population to follow a singular viewpoint. Each American
interprets the facts according to his or her own choosing, a system prevalent even in modern

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Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 174
times. For instance, websites offer a comments section for every news article, a place where
various internet-users clash with their differing opinions, despite the articles principal message
or purpose. Facts are vital assets of power to their consumers, and so, freedom of the press not
only guarantees freedom of the people, but a great deal of power to the people as well.
Unfortunately, newspapers deliver misguiding judgments and values together with the
facts, thereby presenting a threat to a democratic union. Tocqueville upholds that a majoritys
power is potentially harmful to society depending on peoples actions and reactions based on
read information, particularly if said information is biased. Since American media plays a
decentralized role in everyday society, harm, rooted from tyranny of the majority, is narrowly
avoidable.
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For the most part, the United States prides itself on individualism, a concept parallel
to freedom in terms of importance. Citizens have already formulated an entire realm of thoughts
and perspectives, and therefore, they do not accept partial news as part of their system of beliefs.
Most Americans also tend to maintain pragmatic, materialistic views pertaining to their
individual, specific interests, thus they gate their minds from any other end of the spectrum.
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Their obstinate nature provides fruitful in countering the presss extreme standpoints, and
results in preservation of freedom and retaliation against tyranny.
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While Tocqueville asserts that freedom of press is essential to a thriving democratic
government notable for highly valuing the freedom of its populace, the press can also morph the
ideal of liberty into something akin to despotism by granting the majority an excess of power.
This excess of power is especially frightening when considering that false, misleading news
articles bear the capacity to sway opinions and influence minds. Yet, Americans remain strong in

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their primary convictions, because, as Tocqueville claims, the United States entails a
decentralized press. There is a thin line between freedom and tyranny, and a majority is no
exception to playing the tyrants role.

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A Thin Line: Freedom and Despotism

In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville presents forth numerous philosophies

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