While Tocqueville sees the centralization of administration as one of the greatest dangers of democracy, he conversely considers a centralized government essential for a country’s success. While the government is responsible for the “formation of general laws and the relations of the people to foreign countries” (DA, 98), the administration intervenes in much more detail and comprehensively in the everyday lives of the citizens. The centralization of government power consists not only of the concentration of “interests [...] common to all parts of the nation […] in the same place or in the same hands” (DA, 143) but also includes the power to force people to obey the general laws.