Alexis de Tocqueville's equality
...pact on the society is that it turns all people in general indifference to public needs and governing. At the same time as people are led by their self-interest and selfishness, equality tries to place them side by side. When person gets involved in public governing he/she starts feeling the value of public goodwill. Moreover, “under a free government, as most of public offices are elective, the men whose elevated minds or aspiring hopes are too closely circumscribed in private life constantly feel that they cannot do without the people surrounding them”. At this point it might seem that equality and freedom can bring people together, unite them. However, the struggle for the positions in governing offices might cause enmity and violent hostility among candidates and their followers. Thus, freedom and equality produce private animosities, while despotism generates indifference. So, the question how could the Americans ease the tendency of freedom and equality to keep men asunder raises. Unintentionally, the legislators found the answer for this question – it was a general representation of the whole nation and local governments. The general affairs of the country would engage the attention only of leading politicians, who often lost sight of each other afterwards. Here the local affairs offices could work out, they became a kind of transition between people and higher level of government. It was also a useful tool in other way. As we talked previously, human nature makes us be concerned about our own circle of interests more than about others and about the destiny of the state. But participat...