Democracy undermines freedom of mind Instinctively, you’d suppose that democracy would encourage citizens to have an open mind. Surely democracy encourages debate and allows disagreements to be resolved by voting, rather than by violence? We think of openness of mind as being the result of living in a place where lots of opinions get an airing. However, Tocqueville came to the opposite conclusion: that in few places could one find ‘less independence of mind, and true freedom of discussion than in America’. Trusting that the system was fair and just, Americans simply gave up their independence
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