Freedom of thought is necessary for democracy because if not one would only have a collective controlled thought. If one votes fro something or a candidate then in order for the vote to be democratic choices must be present. Freedom of expression encompasses freedom of speech and media, freedom of thought, culture, and intellectual inquiry. Without them there could be no democracy.
In order to advocate for change there must be an open exchange of ideas and thoughts. It provides for all people, majority or minority, to be part of the decision making process in a democracy.
Full importance of freedom of expression could perhaps be appreciated only with the rise of totalitarian regimes, such as Adolph Hitler's Germany and Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union, among others.
In such regimes, the state not only exerted full control over expression, , it also used the media to direct citizens' thoughts and opinions through propaganda, indoctrination, denunciation, and social conformity.
In Fahrenheit 451, the body of government is totalitarian. Therefore, the above statement taken from the democracy website makes an excellent statement relevant to the book.
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