From The Student Room

TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > Politics > Causes which Mitigate the Tyranny of the Majority

---

Please note that not all of the mechanisms which help overcome the tyranny of the majority are outlined in the said chapter. Some of the mechanisms are inferred from elsewhere.

Contents 1 Absence of Centralised Administration 2 The Legal Profession 3 Trial by Jury 4 Civil Society 5 Overhauling the Governmental System? 6 Comments

Absence of Centralised Administration

Tocqueville makes the distinction between a centralised administration and a centralised government. (This first appears in Book I, Chapter 5). A centralised administration is where the central, national authority controls such things as foreign relations and general laws. A centralised government is where the central, national authority controls local interests. As such, England has a largely centralised government and administration. While America does have a centralised administration, it does not have a centralised government.

Because America does not have a centralised government, it "is still destitute of the most perfect instruments of tyranny". When the central government issues decrees out to the local governments it relies on their participation. If an oppressive law was passed, the local governments would act as a check on that tyranny.

The Legal Profession

For Toqueville, the legal profession is the aristocracy of American democracy: "In a community in which lawyers are allowed to occupy without opposition that high station which naturally belongs to them, their general spirit will be eminently conservative and anti-democratic".

These individuals, who have been entrusted with considerable power in government, "are the most powerful existing security against the excesses of democracy". Furthermore, by virtue of their intelligence lawyers are naturally attached to reason.

Trial by Jury

Although trial by jury would seem to be a democratic institution, it in fact has republican elements. It communicates the spirit of the judges to all of the citizens. It "imbues all classes with a respect for the thing judged and with the notion of right". As such, it helps to cultivate the mores of civil society. Given that "Laws are always unstable unless they are founded upon the customs of a nation", the jury is a good way to uphold these laws.

Civil Society

Civil society educates the populace and teaches them how to assert their rights and participate in political debate. It also forms the basis of democracy, in that the maintenance of law and order is caused by the values and mores present in the hearts of the populace.

Overhauling the Governmental System?

As Tocqueville sees it, it might be better to make the institutions less of a slave to the whims of the majority:

"If, on the other hand, a legislative power could be so constituted as to represent the majority without necessarily being the slave of its passions, an executive so as to retain a proper share of authority, and a judiciary so as to remain independent of the other two powers, a government would be formed which would be democratic while incurring scarcely any risk of tyranny."

Comments