Part III Informal Essay

According to Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America, freedom is perhaps the most desired element of a democracy. Tocqueville was quoted in Democracy in America as stating, “Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom." Freedom being the best possible thing for a democracy proved to be true when completing the voluntary associations project because of the very few recognizable guidelines found within it. If I have learned anything about democracy this semester, it is that it does not exist without freedom. The voluntary association project was certainly not a perfect democracy, but I found that it largely displayed freedom, which is the key component of a great democracy. I think that if Tocqueville would have been in my shoes during this project, he would have asked himself the question, “What am I going to do with all of this freedom?”
Throughout the task of investigating voluntary associations with four other students, I quickly recognized that a lot of decisions were going to need to be made. In the assignment, my classmates and I were given extensive freedom of choice. Firstly, in choosing which category of voluntary associations to study. Secondly, in deciding the specific voluntary associations to research. Thirdly, by selecting everything that was to be included in the presentation. After completing all of these choices, I think that everyone on my group could come to the realization that although we may not have had equal amounts of work during this project, we were responsible for what we chose to do within it. I believe that when someone is given the freedom of choice, they feel a greater responsibility for their action and how they complete it. In this project, my group members and I divided the work by which topics we would each like to cover. There were no arguments about what each member chose, nor complaints. In fact, I was a little surprised by how well this kind of democracy worked and how easy it was to divide the different tasks. Each person completed their tasks differently, but we set a timeline of what dates we wanted certain tasks to be finished by. By setting a timeline of reasonable goals for completing our presentation, each person had delegated responsibilities to themselves.
From working in a group, I think that I have learned some effective habits of a successful democracy. When every person involved in a democracy has a central goal in mind, it becomes easier for people to not sway from that original goal. In places where democracies have been implemented around the world, many times, people have opposite ideas of what they would like to accomplish through their democracy. In our group, we did not face the challenge of anyone going against what we were trying to accomplish. With the given freedom of a democracy, any person can oppose the government and their plans. It was definitely easier for my group and I to work together because we all have the same basic objective, to finish the presentation and receive a good grade.
This leads me into why I believe that the necessity of a similar objective in a democracy is not the only piece to unifying a country underneath the entire governmental rule. In Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, I recognized the need for not only a common thread between citizens of a country, but also the need for community involvement at the local level of society. In my experience of working with a group, I felt that the ultimate reason for why the presentation was successful was because of the time and effort that was put into it. This idea of being active in a group project is exactly what Putnam was speaking favorably of in Bowling Alone. Bowling Alone demonstrated the strong correlation between community involvement and social capital found in societies. In a group project where people are devoting their energy to creating something that is successful, social capital flourishes. People such as my classmates and I became more concerned with the end product of our efforts. With individual effort and a central idea being emphasized in a democratic setting, I believe that my group and I saw many challenges fall by the wayside as our presentation took form.
Through the two most emphasized authors of our American Conversation class this semester, I have seen how their ideas of how a democracy should work shape the group work of my classmates and I. A democracy is greater though than Tocqueville’s argument for freedom and equality, or Putnam’s emphasis on generating social capital. In my understanding, a democracy should be connected by a central thought process that ricochets from one individual’s grasp to the full understanding of all people.