The Threats to Democracy in Light of the Thought of Alexis de Tocqueville and Herbert Marcuse
Una reflexión sobre la libertad y el despotismo
Abstract
This article aims to identify the characteristics of modern despotisms in democratic societies, which converge in a guardian state or a public opinion that can sometimes be despotic like political power. The ideas of Marcuse and Tocqueville are briefly analyzed on the concepts that are proposed as the foundations of this phenomenon: the idea of equality, individualism and materialism as enjoyment and well-being, and the weakening of freedom of thought and criticism. Thus, it seeks to make a very general, and therefore fragmentary, a sketch of the ideas of two such different authors, to propose a look that opens questions about the events that occur every day in our societies and that threaten to narrow freedom.
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