This is an excerpt from Robert Nisbet's 1953 The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom:



This is a paraphrase of an explanation of that in George Hawley's Right-Wing Critics of American Conservatism:

Nisbet argued two types of democracy, the unitary and the pluralistic views.

The unitary view of democracy is congruous with Rousseau's notion of General Will and calls for end to all previous social loyalties, such as to regional and local authorities, and, according to Nisbet, "construction of a scene in which the individual would be the sole unit, and the State the sole association, of society." On this view all intermediate institutions fracture society and hinder social harmony. According to Nisbet, this leads to "conditions of social dislocation and moral alienation." Such a democracy is no guarantee of freedom.

The pluralistic view of democracy holds important the institutions and sources of authority that stand between the individual and the unitary state, and stand against totalitarianism. In an atomized society a powerful state is attractive as a source of meaning. Small scale institutions thats grow organically from the family, common interests and social needs are the best protection against the totlitarian impulse. According to Nisbet, "Only in their social interdependencies are men given to resist tyranny that always threatens t arise out of any political government, democratic or otherwise. Where the individual stands alone in the face of the State he is helpless."