The Future of Freedom (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: Fareed Zakaria
- First Published: 2003
- Type of Work: Current events and history
- Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Current affairs, History
- Subjects: Freedom, United States or Americans, Politics, Slavery or slaves, Islam, Twenty-first century, Muslims, Government, Property, Democracy, China or Chinese people, Middle East, Russia or Russian people, Industrialization, Fundamentalism, Iraq or Iraqi people
The idea that democracy and freedom are not the same thing is a fairly old one. The French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville, author of the 1835 book Democracy in America, was interested in the question of why American democracy had not led to dictatorship, as it had in his native country. Part of Tocqueville’s conclusion was that effective democracy must rest on an existing social and legal system that is consistent with popular rule and that prevents majorities from becoming tyrannical. Fareed Zakaria restates this line of reasoning in modern terms, and he extends it by...
[The entire page is 1883 words long]
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