ABSTRACT
The French democratic radicals resembled British liberal democrats. Influenced by the German philosophers Kant and especially Hegel, whom he interpreted in a liberal democratic vein, Green stated that institutions should produce a free existence. Liberal democracy soon became the official doctrine of the Liberal party in England. Liberals must take care to understand the general effects of their decisions and can ignore the characteristics of American democracy—as interpreted by Tocqueville—only at their peril. Moderate liberals feared that if everyone had the right to vote, the majority could repress the cultured minority; but at the same time they recognized that it was no longer possible to prevent citizens from fully participating in political life. In order to understand the significance of the "liberal society" concept, it is necessary to study liberals of the early generations. The insistence on the liberal-society model included recognition of the bourgeoisie's right to guide an intellectually and economically advanced society.
