<span>There could be a number of
answers to your question, as it is the sort of question calling for an essay in
which you state a thesis and defend it. </span>
<span>A possible thesis would be that the
most effective tools for establishing and preserving freedom are effective
legislatures and a fair and strongly functioning system of courts. </span>
<span>Without
effective legislatures (on the state and national level), laws and governance
bog down and the rights and freedoms of citizens can be eroded by special
interests or powerful individuals and groups. Without courts functioning fairly
and firmly to uphold laws that protect citizens' civil rights and liberties,
the freedom of all citizens can be compromised by those who have greater
advantages of wealth or position. </span>
<span>
For another possible thesis, I would. point
you to thoughts from Alexis de Tocqueville's famous work from the 1830s,
<em>Democracy in America</em>. Tocqueville put great stress upon the direct involvement
of all citizens in the democratic functioning of society, through things like
service on juries in the court system and by their regular association with one
another in civic groups. Tocqueville urged that in a democracy, individual
citizens need to learn to unite in association with one another to work as a
group to protect their freedoms against the encroachment of tyranny.
Tocqueville said that the most democratic country on earth is, above all, where
individuals have "most perfected the art of pursuing the object of their
common desires in common." He thought there is a "necessary relation
between associations and equality."</span>
