In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville predicted a species of oppression with which democratic nations are menaced unlike anything which ever before existed in the world. It was a despotism that would be more extensive and would degrade men without tormenting them. It would be a force that compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, til each is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid animals, of which the government is the shepherd...