Liberty and Equality in America

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how throughout the course of the history of the United States, the balance between individual liberty and equality has been repeatedly tested from the eradication of slavery to the issues of freedom, security and free speech. It looks at how a balance can be struck on all of these issues and how currently, the authority of the government far outweighs that of the individual in American society.

From the Paper:

"In The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton marks that the surest way for despotism to arise is for the ideal of liberty and democracy are pursued zealously without any kind of government controls (Hamilton, Madison, and Jay 3). If the democracy and individual liberty were pursued and strengthened without end, it would provide the exact conditions for the emergence of a despot or, perhaps worse, would facilitate the realization of Tocqueville's tyranny of the masses. Tocqueville saw that the basic essence of a democracy was the absolute sovereignty of the majority (Tocqueville vol. 1, ch. XV). "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hamilton, Alexander, Madison, James, and Jay, John. The Federalist Papers. Intro. Charles R. Kesler. Ed. Clinton Rossiter. New York: Mentor, 1999.
• Mahoney, Daniel J. "Liberty, Equality, Nobility: Kolnai, Tocqueville, and the Moral Foundations of Democracy." Perspectives on Political Science 30.4 (Fall 2001): 206-212.

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