Alexis de Tocqueville

Democracy in America
 Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
• Count Alexis de Tocqueville was born in Paris to a
family from the Norman nobility
• His family both suffered and participated in the
French revolution
• Alexis’ father was a French prefect (acquitance with
state administration)
• De Tocqueville studied law
• 1831/2 Travels to the U.S. with a friend (G. de
Beaumont) to study the prison system
• 1839-1848 member of the Chamber of Deputies
• 1849 French Foreign Minister
• Withdrawal from politics after Louis Napoleon’s coup.
• Main works:
– The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856)
– Democracy in America (1835-40)
 Introductory Chapter
• “Amongst the novel objects that attracted
my attention during my stay in the United
States, nothing struck me more forcibly
than the general equality of conditions. I
readily discovered the prodigious influence
which this primary fact exercises on the
whole course of society, by giving a certain
tenor to the laws; by imparting new
maxims to the governing powers, and
peculiar habits to the governed.”
 Towards World Democracy
• “…the equality of conditions is daily progressing
towards those extreme limits which it seems to
have reached in the United States, and… the
democracy which governs the American
communities appears to be rapidly rising into
power in Europe. (…) It is evident to all alike that a
great democratic revolution is going on amongst
us; but there are two opinions as to its nature and
consequences. To some it appears to be a novel
accident… to others it seems irresistible, because
it is the most uniform, the most ancient, and the
most permanent tendency whichis to be found in
history.”(4)
 Providence
• “The whole book which is here offered to the
public has been written under the impression of a
kind of religious dread produced in the author’s
mind by the contemplation of so irresistible a
revolution, which has advanced for centuries in
spite of such amazing obstacles, and which is still
proceeding in the midst of the ruins it has made.
It is not necessary that God himself should speak
in order to disclose to us the unquestionable
signs of His will; we can discern them in the
habitual course of nature, and in the invariable
tendency of events…” (7)
 Abrupt Change
• “The existence of a democracy was seemingly
unknown, when on a sudden it took possession
of the supreme power. (…) The consequence of
this has been that the democratic revolution has
been effected only in the material parts of society,
without that concomitant change in laws, ideas,
customs, and manners which was necessary to
render such a revolution benefitial. We have
gotten a democracy, but without the conditions
which lessen its vices and render its natural
advantages more prominent…” (9)
 Need for direction
• “The Christian nations of our age seem to me to
present a most alarming spectacle; the impulse
which is bearing them along is so strong that it
cannot be stopped, but it is not yet so rapid that it
cannot be guided: their fate is in their hands; yet a
little while and it may be so no longer. The first
duty which is at this time imposed upon those who
direct our affairs is to educate the democracy; to
warm its faith, if that be possible; to purify its
morals; to direct its energies; to substitute a
knowledge of business for its inexperience, and an
acquaintance with its true interests for its blind
propensities… A new science of politics is
indispensable to a new world.” (8)
 Tyranny of the majority
• “I hold it to be an impious and an
execrable maxim that, politically speaking,
a people has the right to do whatsoever it
pleases, and yet I have asserted that all
authority originates in the will of the
majority. Am I, then, in contradiction with
myself?” (564)
• Sovereignty of • Sovereignty of
Vs.
the people Mankind
– Based upon
justice and
reason

(Compare with Rousseau’s General Will)

 Democracy’s Lights & Shadows
• “In my opinion the main evil of the present
democratic institutions of the United States
does not arise, as is often asserted in
Europe, from their weakness, but from their
overpowering strength; and I am not so
much alarmed at the excessive liberty
which reigns in that country, as at the very
inadequate securities which exist against
tyranny.” (565)
What are the positive and negative aspects of democracy, as de
Tocqueville sees it developing in America?
 Balance?
• “The good things and the evils of life are
more equally distributed in the world: great
wealth tends to disappear, the number of
small fortunes to increase; desires and
gratifications are multiplied, but
extraordinary prosperity and irremediable
penury are alike unknown.” (576)
 Equality… & Mediocrity
• “When I survey this countless multitude of
beings, shaped in each other’s likeness,
amidst whom nothing rises and nothing
falls, the sight of such universal uniformity
saddens and chills me, and I am tempted
to regret that state of society which has
ceased to be.” (576)

– Discuss
 Lack of Freedom of opinion:
• “In America, the majority arises very
formidable barriers to the liberty of opinion”
(566); “The Inquisition has never been able
to prevent a vast number of antireligious
books from circulating in Spain. The empire
of the majority succeeds much better in the
United States, since it actually removes the
wish of publishing them.”(567).

What are the relationships between Equality and Freedom?

Which one prevails in modern democracy, according to de Tocqueville?
 Freedom & Art:
• “If great writers have not at present existed
in America, the reason is very simple given
in these facts; there can be no literary
genius without freedom of opinion, and
freedom of opinion does not exist in
America.” (566)
 A New Aristocracy?
• What is the “aristocracy of
manufacturers”?
• Have de Tocqueville’s predictions come
true?
 The Foreigner’s gaze
• “A stranger frequently hears important truths at
the fire-side of his host which the latter would
perhaps conceal from the ear of friendship; he
consoles himself with his guest for the silence to
which he is restricted, and the shortness of the
traveller’s stay takes away all fear of his
indiscretion. I carefully noted every conversation
of this nature as soon as it occurred, but these
notes will never leave my writing-case; I had
rather injure the success of my statements that
add my name to the list of those strangers who
repay the generous hospitality they have received
by subsequent chagring and annoyance.” (17)