This essay focuses on where one person rules. A democracy, at least in theory, is government on behalf of all the people, according to their “will”.
In a paper, explain the cultural and social ideas of Jacksonian Democracy. Then, consider who benefitted from Jacksonian Democracy and explain how you imagine this provided Tocqueville with his high esteem of democracy. For example, how did Jacksonian Democracy influence settlers in the old Southwest, the poor farmers, immigrants. Native Americans, slaves, women, and other groups?.
The word democracy comes from the Greek words “demos”, meaning people, and “kratos” meaning power. So democracy can be thought of as “power of the people”: a way of governing which depends on the will of the people.
The world that it is sometimes easier to understand the idea of democracy in terms of what it definitely is not. Democracy, then, is not autocracy or dictatorship, where one person rules. And it is not oligarchy, where a small segment of society rules. Properly understands, democracy should not even be “rule of the majority”, if that means that minorities’ interests are ignore completely. A democracy, at least in theory, is government on behalf of all the people, according to their “will”.
Although there were almost certainly earlier examples of primitive democracy in other parts of the world. The Greek model was established in the 5th century BC, in the city of Athens. Among a sea of autocracies and oligarchies – which were the normal forms of government rules at the time – Athenian democracy stood out.
The numbers who participated were still far more than in a modern democracy rules. Perhaps 50,000 males engaged directly in politics, out of a population of around 300,000 people.
Democracy is not the law of the majority, but the protection of the minority.
Albert Camus