"Subjection in minor affairs breaks out every day, and is felt by the whole community indiscriminately. It does not drive them to resistance, but it crosses them at every turn, till they are led to surrender the exercise of their will. Thus their spirit is gradually broken and their character enervated; whereas that obedience, which is exacted on a few important but rare occasions, only exhibits servitude at certain intervals and throws the burden of it upon a small number of men.
It is vain to summon a people, which has been so dependant on the central power, to choose from time to time the representatives of that power; this rare and brief exercise of their free choice, however, important it may be, will not prevent them from gradually losing the faculties of thinking, feeling and acting for themselves, and thus gradually falling below the level of humanity"
- Alexis de Tocquivelle, Democracy in America
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