Democracy in America

“As soon as citizens began to own land other than by feudal tenure, and transferable wealth was recognized, and could in its turn create influence and give power, discoveries in the arts could not be made, nor improvements in commerce and industry be introduced, without creating almost as many new elements of equality among men. From that moment on, all processes discovered, all needs that arise, all desires that demand satisfaction bring progress toward universal leveling. The taste for luxury, the love of war, the empire of fashion, the most superficial passions of the human heart as well as the most profound, seem to work in concert to impoverish the rich and enrich the poor.” 

From the first Tocqueville advances his theory of history and historical progress. Changes in the economic system give rise to new social habits and values. Transferrable, mobile wealth drove society toward equality, inevitably and inexorably. Tocqueville emphasizes that no aspect of human activity is exempt from this leveling drive, whatever an individual’s intentions or level of thought around behavior might be. Tocqueville’s word choice here betrays his sympathy for aristocracy: He describes the rich as “impoverished” rather than emphasizing economic justice more generally or empathizing with poor people’s material needs.

“I conceive a society, then, which all, regarding the law as their work, would love and submit to without trouble; in which the authority of government is respected as necessary, not divine, and the love one would bear for a head of state would not be a passion, but a reasoned and tranquil sentiment. Each having rights and being assured of preserving his rights, a manly confidence and a sort of reciprocal condescension between the classes would be established, as far from haughtiness as from baseness. 

This is Tocqueville’s first reference to one of his enduring themes: the need for the rule of law and for all to acknowledge the legal order and their place in it is as rational citizens. Tocqueville acknowledges that it is dangerous to replicate the emotional elements of feudal monarchy; he wants democratic citizens to choose thoughtfully rather than impulsively. He imagines not the eradication of class difference but the calm acknowledgment of social reality and the obligations of all to obey the law.

“America is the only country where one has been able to witness the natural and tranquil developments of a society, and where it has been possible to specify the influence exerted by the point of departure on the future of states. At the period when European peoples descended on the shores of the New World, the features of their national character had already been well fixed; each of them had a distinct physiognomy; and as they had already reached that degree of civilization that brings men to the study of themselves, they have transmitted to us a faithful picture of their opinions, mores, and laws. Men of the fifteenth century are almost as well known to us as those of ours.” 

Tocqueville’s philosophy of history also includes attention to origins. He argues that America is a unique case in this regard because it is clear what English values and practices were prior to North American settlement.