Alexis De Tocqueville 5 Values

ELECTION Primal

The Citizen in de Tocqueville'south America

"A slap-up democratic revolution is taking place in our midst. "

--Alexis de Tocqueville

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On May 9, 1831, two young Frenchmen sailed into the harbor of Newport, Rhode Isle and began a remarkable journey through the United States. Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont, both small French courtroom officials, had been sent past their authorities to study new experimental prisons in America. Yet, fifty-fifty before leaving France, de Tocqueville and de Beaumont decided to spend most of their fourth dimension observing American democracy in action. Both were excited by the prospect. America was such a immature nation, and most Europeans had just a vague thought about its unique democratic system.

After traveling thousands of miles over a menstruum of ix months, the immature men returned to French republic. De Tocqueville spent the next eight years writing two volumes on his observations. In 1840 the two volumes became one book which de Tocqueville titled Republic in America. Much more than a mere record of his travels, Republic in America, in the words of one mod historian, turned out to be "perhaps the greatest commentary ever written near any culture by any person at any fourth dimension."

Alexis de Tocqueville was built-in into an aristocratic family in 1805, the year afterwards Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned emperor of France. De Tocqueville'due south parents had been imprisoned earlier during the French Revolution. Both escaped execution, the fate of many aristocrats at the time.

De Tocqueville studied law and became a depression-level judge in the French court organisation. Early 19th-century political events in French republic convinced de Tocqueville that aristocratic government in Europe was doomed, presently to be replaced by democracy. It was at this time that he and his fellow nobleman, de Beaumont, arranged their trip to America. From de Tocqueville's point of view, it would also be a journey into the futurity.

American Equality

During his travels which took him from the East Coast to the Mississippi River, de Tfocqueville filled 14 notebooks with his observations, thoughts, and interviews with over 200 Americans. De Tocqueville'southward relentless curiosity urged him to probe into every area of American culture, but it was the American people that interested him the most. Specifically, he wanted to find out well-nigh the role of the American citizen in this new democratic society. De Tocqueville set out to find the answers.

"No novelty," he wrote, "struck me more vividly during my stay at that place than the equality of weather condition." Coming from a society still heavily influenced by its aristocratic heritage, de Tocqueville was astounded at how much equality had become a function of American life. It surprised him to meet everyone shaking hands with i another. De Tocqueville marveled, and also worried, nigh a society where social class did non seem to matter and everyone expected to be treated the aforementioned.

From our indicate of view today, the United states of america in 1831 was far from existence a society based on equality. The Indians were viewed as an conflicting people to be driven outside the bounds of civilization. Black slaves were considered the property of their masters. Women could not vote and were legally controlled by their husbands. "In America," wrote de Tocqueville, "a woman loses her independence forever in the bonds of matrimony."

In de Tocqueville's America, the idea of equality practical mainly to complimentary white developed males. Total citizenship rights belonged but to this group. Nevertheless, even this limited caste of equality made the United States radically different from the residue of the globe and fascinated de Tocqueville.

Politics in de Tocqueville's America

"No sooner exercise y'all set foot on American soil than you detect yourself in a sort of tumult," de Tocqueville wrote in his book. "A dislocated clamor rises on every side, and a thousand voices are heard at one time, each expressing some social requirements." De Tocqueville was amazed at the large number of people active in public affairs. "All effectually y'all everything is on the motion," he reported. De Tocqueville saw all kinds of people busily planning local projects, choosing representatives and assembling to criticize their leaders. He was especially impressed with New England town meetings where every citizen had the correct to vote on public matters.

De Tocqueville thought it remarkable how often Americans joined together in various organizations which he chosen associations. "Americans of all ages, all stations of life and all types of disposition are forever forming associations," he wrote. "In that location are not but commercial and industrial associations in which all have role, merely others of a thousand types-religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, immensely large and very infinitesimal."

De Tocqueville went on to observe that Americans naturally formed groups when they wanted to agree a celebration, institute a church, build a schoolhouse, distribute books or do virtually annihilation else. "Finally, if they desire to proclaim a truth or propagate some feeling ...they form an association. In every case, at the head of any new undertaking, where in French republic you would find the government ... in the United States yous are certain to find an association."

"The people reign over the American political globe as God rules over the universe," wrote de Tocqueville. Although property requirements for voting were nonetheless common, they were start to disappear. Elections were usually held every year for local and land offices. Those who had the right to vote did so and in big numbers. During the fourth dimension that de Tocqueville toured America, seventy% or more of the voters turned out on election day, compared to under 50% today.

The four-year cycle of presidential elections, which de Tocqueville called a "revolution ... in the name of the law," fascinated him. He wrote:

Long before the appointed twenty-four hours arrives, the ballot becomes the greatest, and one might say the only, affair occupying men's minds.... The President, for his part, is absorbed in the job of defending himself earlier the majority.... As the election draws near, intrigues grow more active and agitation is more lively and widespread. The citizens split up up into several camps.... The whole nation gets into a feverish land. . ..

With the election over, de Tocqueville reported, everything quickly calmed downwards like a river that only momentarily overflowed its banks. "Only was it not amazing," remarked de Tocqueville, "that such a tempest could ever take arisen?"

At- the time of de Tocqueville's visit, political parties in America were undergoing great change as old ones died out and new ones emerged. The near meaning development was the birth of the Democratic Party under the leadership of Andrew Jackson, elected president in 1828.

De Tocqueville observed a "constant agitation of parties," each attempting to draw voters over to its side. In his notes he wrote that a party candidate ". . . must haunt the taverns, drink and argue with the mob; that is what is called Electioneering in America."

De Tocqueville leveled some of his sharpest criticism against American political leaders themselves. He became convinced that outstanding men avoided elected role in society to pursue their private ambitions and careers. Those who did seek public office, he believed, were often poorly educated and open to corruption.

In 1 of his notebooks, de Tocqueville ridiculed Congressman Davy Crockett equally a man "...who had received no education, could read but with difficulty, had no property, no fixed dwelling house, but spent his time hunting, selling his game for a living, and 1pending his whole life in the woods." But de Tocqueville saved his sharpest barbs for President Jackson whom he described in his volume as a "human being of vehement character and middling capacities." In his view, Jackson possessed few qualities for political leadership.

Constabulary and Citizenship

De Tocqueville institute a deep respect for the constabulary in America. The reason, he felt, was that the American citizens themselves held the ultimate power to change any laws they disliked.

On the other hand, those who chose to violate the police were immediately branded as outcasts past the police-abiding majority. In Europe, de Tocqueville observed, the people merely watched equally the authorities tracked down a criminal, while in America "...everyone thinks he has an interest in furnishing proof of an offense and in arresting the guilty human."

De Tocqueville wondered how American citizens learned most the law and their rights. Public schools, fifty-fifty at an uncomplicated level, inappreciably existed outside of New England. Newspapers helped to inform the public, just the majority of Americans could non read. De Tocqueville discovered that the courtroom and jury actually served as a "costless schoolhouse" for civic teaching. "I do not know whether a jury is useful to the parties involved," de Tocqueville wrote, "but I am sure it is very proficient for those who take to decide the case." De Tocqueville also declared that juries "...brand all men experience that they have duties toward society and that they take a share in its government."

"Tyranny of the Majority"

A number of things bothered de Tocqueville virtually democracy. One of them was that in a society fabricated up of equal citizens, the majority is e'er right. To de Tocqueville, a majority of equals, only like a single all-powerful ruler, could abuse its ability. In a republic, de Tocqueville argued, this abuse becomes the "tyranny of the bulk."

De Tocqueville did not claim that the tyranny of the majority as however existed to any great degree in America. Still, he saw bear witness of information technology developing. For example, de Tocqueville found that in the North, free black males who had the correct to vote often were discouraged from voting by the white majority.

De Tocqueville maintained that even freedom of speech, guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, was affected by majority opinion.

"I know no country," he wrote, "in which, generally speaking, there is less independence of mind and true liberty of discussion than in America." He added that the lack of great writers in the United States was due to the absence of "freedom of spirit" brought on past a majority intolerant of minority views.

"If ever freedom is lost in America," de Tocqueville warned, "that volition be due to the ... majority driving minorities to desperation...." De Tocqueville did identify certain elements at piece of work in American commonwealth which checked the formation of a tyranny of the majority. Amid these elements were the large number of independent associations, the press and the courts.

The Future of Republic

In Europe, about critics of democracy believed that America would sooner or later on descend into anarchy. De Tocqueville, still, saw another even more than agonizing threat to American democracy. He feared that American citizens would become and so satisfied with being equal to 1 another that they would abandon their deep interest and involvement in self-government. If this should happen, cautioned de Tocqueville, government would grow more powerful and in a kindly sort of way comprehend lodge with "a network of niggling, complicated rules." Far from dissolving into anarchy, American government under these conditions could become as oppressive as any cruel European monarchy. Americans would end upwardly having equality through slavery.

In the concluding sentence of Commonwealth in America, de Tocqueville wrote about the fate of Americans and all others who would choose the path of equality. "Information technology depends on themselves whether equality is to lead to servitude or freedom, knowledge or atrocity, prosperity or wretchedness."

For Discussion

Look upwards the meaning of the post-obit terms used in this article: aristocracy, monarchy, tyranny, equality, chaos, oppression, servitude.
Depict the different ways citizens in de Tocqueville'due south America participated in democracy.
Do y'all concord with de Tocqueville's stance nearly Davy Crockett and Andrew Jackson equally political leaders? Research their political careers, and write your ain evaluation.
What did de Tocqueville mean by the "tyranny of the bulk"? Can yous notice any evidence of this in the United States today? five. According to de Tocqueville, what is the greatest threat to a democracy? Who could preclude this threat from occurring?

For Farther Reading

De Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America. Trans. by George Lawrence, ed. by J.P. Mayer. Garden City, Due north.Y.: Doubleday/ Anchor, 1969.

De Tocqueville, Alexis. Journey to America. Trans. by George Lawrence, ed. past J.P. Mayer. Garden City, North.Y.: Doubleday/ Anchor, 1971.

Reeves, Richard. American Journey: Traveling with Tocqueville in Search of Republic in America. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.

A C T I V I T Y

Evaluating de Tocqueville

De Tocqueville's Democracy in America includes numerous observations, criticisms and even predictions nearly democracy and American life. Many of de Tocqueville's views are as accurate and relevant today as they were 150 years ago; others are not. In this activity each student should work with a partner. After reading i of de Tocqueville's statements listed beneath, each pair of students should evaluate it using the steps described below.

Discover out the meaning of any words you exercise not understand by using your textbook and a dictionary.
Write a summary of de Tocqueville'due south statement in your ain words. Endeavor to go the chief idea into 1 sentence.
With your partner decide if y'all hold or disagree with de Tocqueville's ideas. Use your textbook as a resource if you need factual data. Too consider whether the statement is biased or uses cliches or stereotypes.
Write downward as many reasons equally yous tin can retrieve of to support your opinion of de Tocqueville's argument.
Orally report your evaluation of de Tocqueville'southward statement to the residue of the class. Your teacher may want to accept the course react to your evaluation.

De Tocqueville'due south Statements

Patriotism: "Nothing is more annoying ... than this irritable patriotism of the Americans. A greenhorn volition gladly agree to praise much in their country, but he would like to be allowed to criticize something, and that he is absolutely refused."

Equality of the Sexes: "It is easy to encounter that ... equality forced on both sexes degrades them both, and ... could produce nothing only feeble men and unseemly women."

The President: "...the President of the U.s.a. is only a docile instrument in the easily of the majority. He loves what information technology loves and hates what information technology hates; he sails ahead of its desires, anticipating its complaints and bending to its slightest wishes...."

Electing Leaders: "The people never can notice fourth dimension or ways to devote themselves to such work. They are bound e'er to make jerky judgments and to seize on the virtually prominent characteristics."

Gratuitous Press: "The more I observe the chief effects of a free press, the more convinced am I that, in the modern world, liberty of the printing is the master... element of freedom."

The Courts: "There is inappreciably a political question in the U.s. which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one."

Racial Equality: "I do not remember that the white and blackness races volition ever be brought anywhere to alive on a ground of equality."

War and Government: "War ... must invariably and immeasurably increase the powers of ceremonious government...."

Expansion: "...Anglo-Americans alone volition cover the whole immense expanse between the polar ice and the tropics, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast.

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