| 词条 | Soft tyranny |
| 释义 |
OverviewThe soft tyranny that Tocqueville envisioned is described as "absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild."[4] Here, the state is analogous to a parent and is run by "benevolent schoolmasters" who secure the needs of the people and watches over their fate, creating an "orderly, gentle, peaceful slavery" under an administrative despotism.[5] As the objective and the authority of the state provide for people's gratifications, the exercise of the free agency of man is no longer useful or used less frequently, with his will circumscribed within a narrower range, finally reducing him to a perpetual childhood. Tocqueville explained that the principle of equality is partly responsible for this phenomenon because it has disposed men to endure such kind of tyranny and made them look on it and its features as benefits.[4] Some consider soft tyranny a phenomenon of modern societies (or of the future) because these are considered infertile grounds for hard tyranny.[2] Inciting rebellionsSoft tyranny is often cited by historians as being the driving force behind many insurrections. The most obvious area in which soft tyranny affects people occurs with their fiscal situations. Price control is typically considered to be a common feature associated with communist societies; however, it relates directly to not only rebellion, but also soft tyranny. For example, when seigneurial rights, such as land taxes and byway tolls, began to seriously irritate the French peasantry in the mid-eighteenth century, violence in the form of rioting emerged as a consequence.[6]{{rp|243}} In effect, the price of bread, which was a staple in the peasant diet, increased to the point where common peasants could not afford to purchase it on a daily basis.[6]{{rp|247}} And whenever people cannot feed themselves, havoc tends to ensue. This instance in mid-eighteenth century France exemplifies a form of soft tyranny which can quietly disrupt and eventually unravel an entire socio-economic order. References1. ^Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New York: Bantam Books, 2000), 9-15. 2. ^1 {{Cite book|title=History of the Future: The Shape of the World to Come Is Visible Today|last=Singer|first=Max|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2011|isbn=9780739164860|location=Lanham, MD|pages=66}} 3. ^{{Cite book|title=The Masterless: Self & Society in Modern America|last=McClay|first=Wilfred|publisher=The University of North Carolina Press|year=1994|isbn=0807821179|location=Chapel Hill|pages=235}} 4. ^1 {{Cite web|url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/DETOC/ch4_06.htm|title=Tocqueville: Book I Chapter 1|website=xroads.virginia.edu|access-date=2019-01-07}} 5. ^{{Cite book|title=The Art of Being Free: Taking Liberties with Tocqueville, Marx, and Arendt|last=Reinhardt|first=Mark|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=1997|isbn=9780801484247|location=Ithaca, NY|pages=51}} 6. ^1 John Markoff, "Peasants and their Grievances," The Origins of the French Revolution, ed. Peter Campbell (New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2006). External links
2 : Political philosophy|Philosophy of law |
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