ABSTRACT
Tocqueville believed that the power of the majority, as expressed in reverence for public opinion and as sometimes translated into laws promoting conformity, grew out of the relative "equality of conditions" in America. The tyranny of the majority can ensue as members of the public tailor their opinions to those of the majority and as the majority attempts to enact its views into law. Political associations and civil associations were vehicles for collective protection and "resistance against tyranny and oppression," but the supports were strengthened by institutional protections, including federalism; separation of powers; forced majority-and even supermajority-consensus on legislation; limited government; and judicial assent. With little faith in individual opinions and no despot's opinion to revere, the democratic individual exhibits an "almost unlimited confidence in the judgment of the public." Tocqueville thus observed that "all parties are resolved to borrow in their daily controversies, the ideas, and even the language, peculiar to judicial proceedings."
