Democracy and the State
"In a democratic community individuals are very powerless; but the State which represents them all, and contains them all in its grasp, is very powerful. Nowhere do citizens appear so insignificant as in a democratic nation; nowhere does the nation itself appear greater, or does the mind more easily take in a wide general survey of it. In democratic communities the imagination is compressed when men consider themselves; it expands indefinitely when they think of the State. Hence it is that the same men who live on a small scale in narrow dwellings, frequently aspire to gigantic splendor in the erection of their public monuments." ~ Alexis de Tocqueville
"The democratic age is leading to centralization as the natural form of government. As long as the democratic spirit prevails there will be more and more concentration of power and more and isolation of the individual. The love of equality, thus, leads to the centralization of the state as the supreme power." ~ Alexis de Tocqueville
"The democratic age is leading to centralization as the natural form of government. As long as the democratic spirit prevails there will be more and more concentration of power and more and isolation of the individual. The love of equality, thus, leads to the centralization of the state as the supreme power." ~ Alexis de Tocqueville
