Soft tyranny is an idea first coined by Alexis de Tocqueville in his 1835 work titled Democracy in America. In effect, soft tyranny occurs whenever the social conditions of a particular community hinder any prospect of hope among its members. For Tocqueville, hope is the driving force behind all democratic institutions. As such, whenever this all-encompassing hope is taken away from the people, liberal democracy fails. Examples of this failure can be seen in the Weimar Republic of Germany during the 1930s or in the French Third Republic around 1940. Hope for a better future effectively died in both of the aforementioned situations. As a result, fascist regimes were established to fill the void left by the departure of hope.
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Famous quotes containing the words soft and/or tyranny:
“Ellie: By the way, what’s your name?
Peter: What’s that?
Ellie: Who are you?
Peter: Who, me? I’m the whippoorwill that cries in the night. I’m the soft morning breeze that caresses your lovely face.
Ellie: You’ve got a name, haven’t you?
Peter: Yeah, I got a name. Peter Warne.
Ellie: Peter Warne? I don’t like it.”
—Robert Riskin (1897–1955)
“Speak against unconscious oppression,
Speak against the tyranny of the unimaginative,
Speak against bonds.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)