Years ago I took a readings class at Geoergia State University on Jacksonian democracy and this was our first assignment. It is amazing how fresh this book is. It makes you want to say out loud, as an America, "hey this is us, it is really US". ( )

Tocqueville makes three references to Volney's "Soil and Climate of the United States" (see my review) in his "Democracy in America."

Turn to the Footnotes found in Volume One, Chapter Ten (pages 322, 327 and 333 in this edition). The most interesting is the last: here Tocqueville recounts and augments Volney's description of the French-cultured inhabitants of Vincennes on the Wabash in the Ohio Valley.

Comparing the Anglo-Saxon settlers to the Franco-Canadian settlers, Tocqueville says, "These Frenchmen were worthy people, but neither educated nor industrious...The Americans, who were perhaps morally inferior to them, had an immense intellectual superiority. They were industrious, educated, rich, and accustomed to governing themselves." Tocqueville goes on to note that almost all the trading activity in Louisiana was conducted by the Anglo-Saxons and that in pre-revolutionary Texas, the Anglo-Saxons were already in control of most commerical activities just like in Louisiana.

Alexis de Tocqueville last updated this work in 1848, 15 years after the original publication. He wrote it as a comparative sociological treatise, giving his forecast for the evolution of modern government as a lesson for post-monarchy France. The first book takes us through the political and governmental structure of US law. the detail is sufficient to allow a close look at such things as the local governing units (it is the township in Mass. and the county in Ohio). The second book contains the more philosophical commentary on the cultural and sociological factors -- and where they might lead. The trend toward equality and the natural tendency in turn toward centralization of power is a major theme throughout his work. He does point out a number of mitigating factors against each that should be encouraged. Another central theme is the importance of "mores" in the classical sense defined as the "whole moral and intellectual state of a people." His writing style is wonderful and very organized, with each section summarized with an abstract and each sub-section summarized by a single paragraph or sentence. The entire book is concluded with: "The nations of our day cannot prevent conditions of equality from spreading in their midst. But it depends upon themselves whether equality is to lead to servitude or freedom, knowledge or barbarism, prosperity or wretchedness."

In laying the foundation, he mentions a number of great "leveling" factors that led to the trend toward equality. The development of trade and technology is shown to have taken the last remnants of nobility by surprise. Inheritance laws drove equality by weakening the preservation of estates. At the same time, the colonial laws in the US were both very democratic and yet often completely intolerant of religious or moral behaviors. The example of adulterous couples being sentenced to being whipped and then married is a sufficient example. He also discusses the relation between democracy and religion, at one point calling Catholicism the ultimate democracy and frequently showing the tolerance and commonality that results from the varied and varying religious sects. "Classical historians taught how to command; those of our own time teach next to nothing but how to obey." (p. 496). He observes that manufacturing leads to an equivalent of aristocracy with craftsmen slipping into the level of nothing, but workers and industrialists becoming a separate class.

Regarding American government, he says that as an elected official, the President is a follower of the common will rather than a leader "The two main weapons used by the parties to assure success are newspapers and associations." (p. 179). He describes a constant lawmaking without lasting focus, resulting in a series of ideas half-completed (his example is the prison reform that created new prisons and a whole system more like medieval dungeons than before). Lawyers are America's aristocracy: "So hidden at the bottom of a lawyer's soul, one finds some of the tastes and habits of an aristocracy. They share its instinctive preference for order and its natural love of formalities; like it, they conceive a great distaste for the behavior of the multitude and secretly scorn the government of the people." (p. 264) "A French lawyer is just a man of learning, but an English or an American one is somewhat like the Egyptian priests, being, as they were, the only interpreter of an occult science." (p. 267). Three key factors to the stability of the US democracy are: the federal form giving the power of a great republic and the security of a small one, communal institutions to moderate the despotism of the majority, and the organization of judicial power. Congressman give speeches and muddle on in order to have text and quotes to send home to consituents, often saying things they don't understand themselves, so that "the debates of that great assembly are frequently vague and perplexed, seeming to be dragged, rather than march, to the intended goal." Because of the necessity of individualism, democracy tends to make people forget their ancestry and remove themselves from their contemporaries; two methods by which Americans combat the effect of individualism are newspapers and associations (p.508)."As equality spreads and men individually become less strong, they ever increasingly let themselves glide with the stream of the crowd and find it hard to maintain alone an opinion abandoned by the rest." (p. 520).

Comparing America to Europe, de Tocqueville observes few truly uneducated and few truly learned. When education is ending in America, it is just beginning for a European. Punishment is less severe but more likely. Impeachment is an administrative matter rather than a judicial one. It is lesser men who pursue politics as the more ambitious turn to industry. The marriage tie is more voluntary and fidelity adhered to, resulting in a more stable social infrastructure. Religion more powerful by being separate from the political. He observes a literary and artistic void due to concentration on industry, lack of leisure class, and lack of education. People learn government through participation and exercise of their rights; are more independent, more inward, but deny anything they cannot understand because they are more likely to have solved everything to get where they are. Democracy came about without an internal revolution, which meant no drastic change and subsequent stabilization. He sees less theoretical research but better application, "These same American who have never discovered a general law of mechanics have changed the face of the world by introducing a new machine for navigation." (p. 463). Women have more time to become individuals before marriage. Americans move around too much to allow manners to be established (because no chance for convention to solidify and no permanent relationship about which to worry). War, including duels, battle, and feuds, are considered worse than bankruptcy. People do not reach for ambitious goals. "... life is spent in coveting small prizes within reach." (p. 629).

Regarding democracy itself, "It really is difficult to imagine how people who have entirely given up managing their own affairs could make a wise choice of those who are to do that for them. One should never expect a liberal, energetic, and wise government to originate in the votes of a people of servants." (p. 694).

Among his final observations: "In democracies ignorance as much as equality will increase the concentration of power and the subjection of the individual." (p. 676) ( )

Lack of extremes (education/ignorance, wealth/poverty) in Europe

This is a must have/must read for anyone who is interested in American history. Tocqueville gives a great explanation of America and its government. It is sometimes difficult to read because it was written by a Frenchman many, many years ago but that can be overlooked. Of note, many of Tocqueville's predictions about the state of world affairs turned out to be accurate. Overall, it's a must read for anyone. ( )