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About this quote

What does it mean?
Power in American townships is split to involve more people in public affairs.
In plain terms
Breaking power into pieces lets many citizens care about government.
What can you take from it?
Decentralizing power increases civic engagement.

Where it applies

  • studying local government
  • discussing civic duty

Putting it to work

  • designing participatory systems

Questions to consider

  • Does split power help democracy?
  • How do citizens engage?

Another view

Fragmentation can also slow decision making.

More from Alexis de Tocqueville

  1. When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.

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  2. It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.

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  3. When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, it afterward persists by itself, needing no effort to mainta…

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