Conformity Is Bad For Democracy Essay Examples

The uniqueness nature of human is a common bother for democracies because it is hard to please every participant. However, some governments have recognized a new way to exert social control through conformity. When the populace conforms to a certain behavior, the government policy makers can easily enforce their ideologies that undermine democracy. Following the above argument, conformity is bad for democracy because it is a covert form of autocracy.
Political leaders can easily manipulate the people through conformity through their use of charisma and authoritative position. Since democracy is about majority rules, the leaders’ only need to persuade the majority followers that their rules of the game is right, and they should support and respect it. When a democracy is run through conformity, the citizens are blinded to think they have the best political system. For this reason, a critic like Alexis De Tecquelle would be subjected to a great deal of hatred and his views would be unwelcomed within public discourse. Why? America is a democracy, but the American citizens do not realize that their habit to conformity to the majority is an autocracy in disguise. According to De Tocqueville, American democracy is a disguised form of a powerful tyranny run by the majority who adhere to conformity principles. Precisely, De Tocqueville writes,  “In my opinion the main evil of the present democratic institutions of the United States does not arise, as is often asserted in Europe; from their weakness, but from their overpowering strength; and I am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country as at the very inadequate securities which exist against tyranny” (493). Likewise, the practice of tyranny of the majority is deeply discouraged by John Stuart Mill. This is because when society is coached to conform to the majority opinion, then the minorities have no voice, and such a regime is no better than monarchies. For instance, an individual democratic right is irrelevant in democracies that conform to majority social practice because they have nowhere to turn to but to the majority. Like, De Tocqueville argues when one want a redress he/she must seek public opinion, and it is unfortunate that the public is already biased. Therefore, the conformity practice is risky for democracy because the government can exceed its’ mandate as long as it adheres to the conformity principles.

Work Cited

De Tocqueville, Alexis , Harvey C. Mansfield, and Delba Winthrop. Democracy in America. Chicago, Ill.: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2002. Print.