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Jordan Schwartz
Intermediate Comp
Rhetorical Analysis
2-2-15
Intermediate Composition
What do you think of when you think of democracy?
“Ideal Democracy” by Carl Becker explores this question and defines what
contributed to the development of democracy. He explores the underlying principles
of democracy and compares how our current democracy relates to an ideal
democracy.
Carl Becker was a prominent historian who was interested in the Natural
Rights Philosophy (Cooperative Individualism). He asserted that history was
relative to its time and argued against using the scientific method in history, in
doing so he changed the way people thought about history by having them examine
the history in the context in which it happened, rather than a chronological
statement of facts.
An Ideal Democracy is written for the Page Barbour Lectures at the
University of Virginia. His first discourse community is the students and faculty he is
addressing as well as the citizens of America as a whole,
I think Ideal Democracy makes an effective argument in convincing people of the
fact that democracy requires participation of all citizens and our democracy falls
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short of that ideal. Becker is convincing in these arguments because he clearly
defines what democracy is. He appeals to people’s innate sense of patriotism and
calls for an improvement to make changes so that our democracy is closer to the
ideal.
This paper will examine Becker’s use of the rhetorical devices of persuasion, appeal
to pride and comparison in making his argument for explaining what democracy is
and how citizens can improve upon it.
In Ideal Democracy Becker uses the rhetorical device of persuasion to make
his argument. He appeals to the audience at the University of Virginia and their
connection to Thomas Jefferson, he uses Jefferson’s actual epitaph to emphasize
Jefferson’s connections to the university. He quotes the epitaph saying one of the
three things that Jefferson put on his tombstone is “Father of the University of
Virginia” (Becker 147). Having established the emotional connection, he then uses
Jefferson’s affiliation with democracy to engage the audience in his topic, “The word
that best denotes this social philosophy is democracy” Becker says of Jefferson. Once
having established the connection with Jefferson, Becker goes on to define
democracy and asserts that it is “a word that connotes different things to different
people…can be made to accommodate any social facts” (Becker 148). He tells his
audience that there needs to be a definition in order to eliminate such things as
dictatorships and monarchies. “Since virtually all governments, except in times of
revolution, rest upon the implicit and explicit consent of the people” (Becker 148).
He continues to persuade the audience by asserting that democracy can only be of
the people, by the people, and for the people. (Becker 148-149) He uses the
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technique of looking back over history from a distance to persuade the audience
that democracy is a new and fragile concept, which requires the citizen’s
participation and understanding to maintain.
Becker asserts that people will be connected to democracy as a concept and
would wish to improve it and maintain it once they are enlightened as to its current
problems. We see in his argument that fascists and dictators could define their
governments as democratic. This would encourage people to defend democracy and
not allow it to be claimed by such governmental systems.
Becker talks about how up until now democracies were only seen in small
states (Becker 152). He talks about how there is a set of virtues that are in people of
a democracy stating “the primary assumption of democratic government is that its
citizens are capable of managing their own affairs” (Becker 152). In using this and
several other virtues the audience both relates to and feels the need to live up to
these virtues. Most people will feel that they are capable of managing their own
affairs, rational and able to compromise.
Becker additionally differentiates modern democracy as different from older
democracies and being superior because of its emphasis on individual and natural
rights. Democracy “sets the only form of government off from all the others which
alone can achieve the good life” (Becker 154). Since most people want the good life
and are democratically inclined he leads people to agree with his argument for
democracy.
Becker speaks to the pride of most Americans in the age old “holding these truths to
be self evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with
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certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”
(Declaration of Independence).
By pointing the audience to these ideals to which he assured they will relate, he
then, having engaged their pride and patriotism, makes an argument that the belief
in democracy is declining and an appeal to the audience for a return closer to the
ideal democracy.
A third rhetorical device that Becker uses is comparison, in his “stepping
back” approach he reviews the previous democracies such as ancient Greece. He
points out that all democracies up until now were small limited states and
enumerates the reasons the modern democracy is built on progress and
communication allowing for a larger state and therefore, a larger government.
Therefore it needs the participation of a large number of committed people to
thrive.
Becker calls upon the audience ‘s sense of superiority to other democracies
to engage them in participation in the modern democracy.
`Becker has called upon the pride of America and its citizens to create a more ideal
democracy. By use of comparison, pride and patriotism and persuasion takes the
University of Virginia discourse community on a journey that leads them to a call to
action, to save the democracy in as close to an ideal state as possible. By comparing
them to inferior previous democracies and appealing to qualities that most people
relate to, Becker gets people to the point I think he is aiming for.
The point I think Becker is aiming for is more participation by everyone in
government and the maintenance of modern democracy, which he feels, is waning.
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Becker could have gone farther in his comparison of the definition of modern
democracy by using more examples of how, without a clear vision of democracy,
fascists, dictators and other oppressive governments can call themselves
democracies. By using more examples he could have increased the fervor of people
to maintain actual democracy.
Overall Becker makes a very valid and persuasive argument to his discourse
communities.
The genre of this text is a speech. The speechmaker usually wants to make a
point and leave a lasting impression on people. Becker leaves the audience
empowered to participate in democracy, which I believe is his aim.
Becker’s word choice, sentence structure and choice of examples: Becker
chose words which resonate with his discourse community,. He uses words such as
‘democracy’, ”idea” “good” and “bad” to separate rights.
Becker chooses a sentence structure with long, intellectual concepts and
continues with this until his point is made. Becker chooses examples from ancient
and up to and including the time of the speech to evoke a perspective, which I feel,
leads to his aim to present an opportunity and obligation for participatory
government.
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Works Cited
Becker, Carl Ideal Democracy