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Democracy And Violence

            In the movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, John Marini attempts to recreate conditions necessary for the emergence of a democratic regime. He does this by having a western cowboy setting, in a territory that has not yet become a state. It's in a town called Shinbone where the ideas of democracy do not exist. In this lawless area the only way people can protect themselves and their possessions is with a gun. Government has no chance in this place without forcing the opposing side to listen and accept it. Death and injury have to occur to turn a place into a democracy. Force is also sometimse necessary to keep democracy in place, as shown in Walter Van Tilburg Clark's book The Ox-Bow Incident. Both are examples illustrating that violence is sometimes necessary to establish and maintain a democracy.
             The situation in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is there is a decision the people of Shinbone and the surrounding area have to make. Should they become a state or stay as an open range. The open range supporters are mainly big ranchers, bandits, and rustlers. The big ranchers need it for their cattle and the bandits and rustlers probably claim the same thing. However, they need the open range so they can keep robbing and stealing from innocent people. The main character who represents this side is a man named Liberty Valance. He keeps the people and the sheriff of Shinbone scared of him to maintain his power over the town. He is a very violent person and is not scared of the law because there is none. He has a total disregard of any form of democracy. His opposing character is a man named Ransom Stoddard. He is a lawyer from somewhere back east. He runs into Valance on his way through the territory and is robbed of his possessions and almost beaten to death for trying to stick up for a woman he is riding with. Stoddard makes it his personal business to go after Valance. He looks in his law books and finds out that the town sheriff has jurisdiction over what happens outside of Shinbone, and can take outlaws to jail.


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