|
tocqueville wrote in democracy in america that the single most important area of law for keeping the united states a democracy were those which taxed and otherwise redistributed inheritances.
he considered these fundamental because they prevented the formation of an economic aristocracy.
tocqueville understood equality of right and equality of condition (more or less on the second) to be the defining features of the democratic experiment in america.
writing about the 1830s, he already saw that capitalism, which was taking shape in the cities, was likely to erase american democracy (burden of the future), just as the residuum of protestant ideologies placed severe limits on freedom (burden of the past).
conservatives oppose the redistribution of inheritances.
funny, that.
__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
|