Tocqueville was a Frenchman who was interested in America and its democratic concept. He wrote about his observations about America in his book Democracy in America. Tocqueville's attitude towards the Americans seems very grateful. He saw democracy as a perfect balance between freedom and equality. Yet while grateful, he is also quite critical of some of the effects of democracy in America. Tocqueville believed that there were flaws in democracy and spelled them out in his book. One of these flaws that Tocqueville talks about is the influence that democracy has on America. Democracy gives everyone the opportunity to have a say in their government. Americans believe democracy is a good thing. However, Tocqueville spoke of the influences created by this cult of democracy. For example, Tocqueville explains that Americans did not consider philosophy important and did not have their own philosophical school. Yet even without paying much attention to philosophy, Americans all think the same way. This similar philosophy uses the same method of relying on one's own understanding and opinion to make decisions. Tocqueville believed that this method is used by Americans because of an aversion they have to accepting things just because the authorities say so and instead need to think for themselves. Instead of accepting what authorities say, Americans believe that nothing is impossible to understand and that everything can be explained using a person's personal judgment about things. This trust in a person's judgment also leads Americans to distrust anything supernatural. Tocqueville's observations here seem to be quite critical and seem to be about Americans' respect for their j...... middle of paper ... there is no need to worry about creating a new art or new literature when they can simply count on Europe. This can also be seen as part of the apathy created by individualism. Tocqueville believes that this is another problem with democracy and its influence. Tocqueville seems to like democracy in its ideal form. However, nothing can be perfect and so America is not a perfect democracy. Tocqueville saw many problems with democracy and its influence on the population. These issues range from their distrust of dogmatic beliefs to the imperfect equality in place in America. He also found that the effects of these problems were also very problematic. For example, individualism, an effect of equality, is very problematic for democracy. Tocqueville likes to consider America as an experiment in democracy, but does not find it impeccable.