Soft despotism
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Distinguish".
Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people.[1]
Soft despotism gives people the illusion that they are in control, when in fact they have very little influence over their government. Soft despotism breeds fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the general populace. Alexis de Tocqueville observed that this trend was avoided in America only by the "habits of the heart" of its 19th-century populace.
Concept
In Volume II, Book 4, Chapter 6 of Democracy in America, de Tocqueville writes the following about soft despotism:
Some scholars have described Tostig Godwinson’s governance over Northumbria as an early form of benevolent despotism.[2]
See also
- Dictablanda
- Enlightened absolutism
- Illiberal democracy
- Inverted totalitarianism
- Last man
- Managerial state
- Spoils system
- Totalitarian democracy
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
Template:Democracy in America Template:Alexis de Tocqueville Script error: No such module "Navbox".