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Riya Patel
Rita Kumar
Intermediate Composition
2nd February 2015
Rhetorical Analysis: “Ideal Democracy” by Carl Becker
“Democracy is not a one shot affair, it is not an event. It is a continuous process towards
a desirable goal." These are the words of Phillo Mody in Democracy means Bread and Freedom.
Ideal democracy was three-part speech, spoken by Carl Becker at the University of Virginia in
1940. Later it became a book titled Modern Democracy. Becker’s perspective of writing this
speech was to survive democracy during the time when the United States of America joined
World War II. Becker was invited to the University of Virginia to deliver a speech related with
Thomas Jefferson. Becker’s early work focused on the beginning of the US experiment with
democracy. According to Becker, the American Revolution’s determination to create a
democracy was not only deep, but also strong. Becker saw that American Revolution was not
only about independence but also about changing the basic form of government and abandoning
the age old institution of a court who governed without taking into account of the people. During
the time of World War II, many people had little faith in the war; by his speech, he decided to
motive and educates students about democracy by using rhetorical analysis strategies. In the
book review of Modern Democracy, Frank Knight comments that, any reader of Carl Becker’s
writings will know in advance that it contains many great thoughts and better to use few
paragraphs available for comments. In Ideal Democracy, Carl Becker uses a number of rhetorical
strategies to clarify his view, such as: questions, diction, sentence structure, the breaking of his
speech into three distinct sections, and most importantly, the use of Comparisons.
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Becker defines ideal democracy by commenting, “Government of the people, by the
people, and for the people” (Becker 3). Becker wants democracy run of the people, by the people
and for the people; however, the United States current government is of the people, run by
politicians for groups that can get their own interest taken cared for. When Becker got invited to
give a speech to University of Virginia’s students and staff members, he saw a connection with
Thomas Jefferson’s idea of democracy and ideal democracy. Becker begins his speech by
making topic that his audience can relate. In this case, it was the connection between democracy
and Thomas Jefferson, who was founding father of University of Virginia. Becker started his
speech addressing, “In devising his own epitaph. Jefferson himself selected, out all of his notable
achievements, only three for which he wishes to be especially remembered. Here was Buried
Thomas Jefferson, author of Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia
for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia” (Becker 2). By referring to
Thomas Jefferson, Belcher has now appealed to the audience’s ethos, which not only was created
by the diction use or sentence structure but also by what he already knows.
Becker paints an historical picture of democracy and gives multiple examples to support
his speech in order to convey that success democracy has had in various countries. According to
Becker, “it is obvious that, taking the experience of mankind as a test, democracy has as yet had
but a limited and temporary success. There must be a reason for this significant fact. The reason
is that democratic government is a species of the social luxury” (Becker 10). Becker gives an
example that claims that democracy was major factor in developing rich countries. Relating to
this topic, there were some attempts in the Greek society about democracy, which were
successful. They were successful because Greek society had small city states and it was easy to
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handle by governed individually. Becker believes that there are certain situations that American
can practice in order for democracy to survive and grow throughout the country.
Carl Becker was a well-known historian and professor of history at Cornell University.
Becker was known for his idea concerning the writing of history and unique style of writing
keeping his audience in mind. In the speech, Ideal Democracy, Becker uses formal diction, but
reduces into simpler words, presenting an easier interpretation of the subject, and defining the
terms. Ideal democracy is a very serious topic to lecture on, by keeping in formal diction; he
showed respect to the democracy and people who were associated with democracy. Throughout
the speech, Becker used technical term, which his audience can understand. Becker understood
that the more technical he will use, more specific and detailed he could be. This also meant that
the audience could connect to his speech and what he is trying to explain. Becker Asserts, “Thus
modern liberal-democracy is associated with an ideology which rests upon something more than
the minimum assumptions essential to any democratic government” (Becker 29). By explaining
what modern liberal democracy is, he is making the term easier for his audience to connect.
Identifying audience’s age-group, language helps him create positive effect and connect with his
audience.
Most important rhetorical technique that Becker uses in his lecture is comparison. Becker
demonstrates the meaning of democracy by comparing its basic definition to other form of
government system that existed at that time. He begins with comparing the term democracy to
other words that can be given different implications depending on the reader or listener stating,
“Democracy, like liberty or science or progress...It is a term, as the devotees of semantics say,
which has no referent. There is not precise or palpable thing or object which we all think of when
the word is pronounced” (Becker 3). He goes further by comparing democracy to, “a kind of
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conceptual Gladstone bag which, with a little manipulation, can be made to accommodate almost
any collecting of social facts we may wish to carry about in it” (Becker 3). Becker gives this
example to explain that democracy holds such a wide and varies factors but does not have one
accurate meaning; it means different things to different people.
After comparing definition of democracy, he goes on by comparing democracy to
different leaders who have misused the term democracy. Becker added, “Caesar’s power derived
from a popular mandate, conveyed through established republican forms, but that did not make
this government any the less a dictatorship. Napoleon called his government a democratic
empire, but no one, least of all Napoleon himself, doubted that he had destroyed the last vestiges
of the democratic republic” (Becker 5). Napoleon and Caesar were elected by people and got into
power; however, after election they become dictator. Democracy does not stop as simply just
electing a leader in to the office, but having a follow through in that leader’s decision after the
leader is elected. By comparison strategy, backer has manages to explain his audience that often
government might appear democratic, but it is not.
Becker tried to use multiple short and simple sentences that grab audience’s attention, for
example Becker states, “Democracy is in some sense an economic luxury” (Becker 13). Most of
the sentences in speech contain subordinate clause as well as an independent clause, but not all
of the sentences were similar. some of them were complex sentences; For example Becker
addresses, ”From this brief survey it is obvious that, taking the experience of mankind as a test,
democracy has as yet had but a limited and temporary success”(Becker 10).among using other
rhetorical strategies, Becker uses a small amount of rhetorical questions to make his audience
think about the topic. At the end of section I Becker asks, “What are we to think of this sudden
reversal in fortune and prestige? How explain it? What to do about it?” (Becker 7). These
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questions serve the purpose of letting the audience draw their own conclusions to what they
heard in Section I. Most of his questions are open-ended. He never truly provides direct facts to
his audience, but instead throughout the entire lecture, he steers his audience in order for them to
draw their own conclusions.
Through the effective use of rhetorical strategies and the mindful arrangement of this
speech, Becker ends his lecture by commenting on that men had long imagine ideal world that
his heaven on earth which was based on communal and collective identity. Becker is making
shift and commenting that democracy is going to survive, but it must have its center focus based
on individual rights. He also mentioned that men can now conceive to utopian life founded on
natural laws on our ability to think through with this principles and some hard work; men can
actually create utopian stage on earth. It became clear to Becker that men are not only capable to
bring good life by promoting natural laws and promoting humanism, but they have duty to bring
political institution in according with laws of human nature.
In conclusion, Becker did a great job writing this speech, considering the speech was
given during World War II and the discourse community was losing their faith on democracy;
therefore “Ideal Democracy” gives a positive outlook on the present situations. Becker explains
that if we do not fight for this was, we will lose our democracy and everything will be taken for
granted. The war and democracy are very sensitive subjects; Becker did an excellent job at
incorporating choice of rhetorical methods to a formal and respectful speech to make his
audience understand his point of view. Thus, Becker also makes “Ideal Democracy” an effective
speech by using the correct diction and sentence structure for the discourse community and
rhetorical appeals to positively influence the audience. Concerning about the facts that Becker
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provides in the speech, it is clear that what is described as democracy is totally different from
Becker’s description of ideal democracy.
In the book review of Modern Democracy, Frank Knight comments that, any reader of
Carl Becker’s writings will know in advance that it contains many great thoughts and better to
use few paragraphs available for comments.
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Work cited
Carl L. Becker. “The Ideal" and "Afterthought on Constitutions" from Modern Democracy and
from Yale Review. XXVII,+55.1941.
Knight, Frank. "The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.” 2008. Library of Economics and
Liberty. 9 February 2015. http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Knight.html.
Mody, Piloo. "The Abiding Value of Democracy." Democracy Means Bread and Freedom. New
Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1979. Print.
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Reflection
Rhetoric is the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing. Rhetoric is the study and
practice of communication that persuades, informs, inspires, or entertains target audiences in
order to change or reinforce belief, values, habits, or actions. Rhetoric I not limited to writing
and speech, but occurs through all media and genres. It is really important to know about
rhetoric because it helps you contribute to strong, audience focused, and organized writing. It
also helps the writer to save time by considering the purpose, context, and audience for a
document. I have learned multiple rhetorical techniques that I can use in my writing such as:
logos, ethos, pathos, diction, and structures. A discourse community is a group of people who
share same values and beliefs to reach an ultimate decision. It is important to learn about
discourse community because different discourse communities have different way to understand
language (words), so if you know their discourse community and language, you can effectively
communicate with them and make them understand what is your point in your writing.