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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: not only because he was born in it, but because it constitutes a
social body of which he is a member, and whose government claims
and deserves the exercise of his sagacity. In Europe the absence
of local public spirit is a frequent subject of regret to those
who are in power; everyone agrees that there is no surer
guarantee of order and tranquility, and yet nothing is more
difficult to create. If the municipal bodies were made powerful
and independent, the authorities of the nation might be disunited
and the peace of the country endangered. Yet, without power and
independence, a town may contain good subjects, but it can have
no active citizens. Another important fact is that the township
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