Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Faculty Member, Department of Philosophy, Imam Khomeini International University
Abstract
This article argues that “democracy” does not necessarily guarantee “liberty” and “human rights,” and analyzes the causes of such an inconsistency and the solutions for reconciling them in the ideas of James Madison, Alexis de Tocqueville, and John Stuart Mill. The US founding fathers and the Federalist authors, found out the possibility of the emergence of this inconsistency and, following Locke and Montesquieu, proposed a set of “institutional devices” such as “separation of powers,” “a system of representation,” “a system of checks and balances,” and “legal guarantees of minority rights” to defend “liberty” and “human rights.” However, distinguishing “social and cultural causes” from “political and institutional causes,” this article believes that this problem in “democracy” is too complicated to be solved by mere “institutional devices.” It argues that “violating minority rights,” “suppression,” “tyranny of the majority,” and “despotism of the custom” are still possible even in a democratic system, and it is impossible to solve them by mere “institutional devices.” So, using Tocqueville’s observations and argumentations in Democracy of America, his distinction between “mild despotism” and “tyranny of the majority,” and also the concept of “public consent” in Noam Chomsky’s and Edward S. Herman’s Manufacturing Consent, this article analyzes the possible types of “tyranny” and “despotism” in a democratic system, the effect of “mild despotism” on “self-censorship,” “political and social pressures on the dissenters,” and incapability of the mere “institutional device”" in solving these problems. Then, it shows the development of the theory of “mild despotism” in Mill’s theory of “despotism of the custom,” and analyzes his argumentation that it is more dangerous than “political despotism” for “development and welfare in society.” Finally, it analyzes Mill’s theoretical and practical proposals for solving this problem.
Keywords
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