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$Unique_ID{how00987}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Democracy In America
Chapter XIV: Advantages American Society Derive From Democracy - Part II}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{De Tocqueville, Alexis}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{upon
government
states
law
united
activity
political
authority
democracy
society}
$Date{1899}
$Log{}
Title: Democracy In America
Book: Volume I
Author: De Tocqueville, Alexis
Date: 1899
Translation: Reeve, Henry
Chapter XIV: Advantages American Society Derive From Democracy - Part II
Respect For The Law In The United States
Respect of the Americans for the law - Parental affection which they entertain
for it - Personal interest of everyone to increase the authority of the law.
It is not always feasible to consult the whole people, either directly or
indirectly, in the formation of the law; but it cannot be denied that, when
such a measure is possible the authority of the law is very much augmented.
This popular origin, which impairs the excellence and the wisdom of
legislation, contributes prodigiously to increase its power. There is an
amazing strength in the expression of the determination of a whole people, and
when it declares itself the imagination of those who are most inclined to
contest it is overawed by its authority. The truth of this fact is very well
known by parties, and they consequently strive to make out a majority whenever
they can. If they have not the greater number of voters on their side, they
assert that the true majority abstained from voting; and if they are foiled
even there, they have recourse to the body of those persons who had no votes
to give.
In the United States, except slaves, servants, and paupers in the receipt
of relief from the townships, there is no class of persons who do not exercise
the elective franchise, and who do not indirectly contribute to make the laws.
Those who design to attack the laws must consequently either modify the
opinion of the nation or trample upon its decision.
A second reason, which is still more weighty, may be further adduced; in
the United States everyone is personally interested in enforcing the obedience
of the whole community to the law; for as the minority may shortly rally the
majority to its principles, it is interested in professing that respect for
the decrees of the legislator which it may soon have occasion to claim for its
own. However irksome an enactment may be, the citizen of the United States
complies with it, not only because it is the work of the majority, but because
it originates in his own authority, and he regards it as a contract to which
he is himself a party.
In the United States, then, that numerous and turbulent multitude does
not exist which always looks upon the law as its natural enemy, and
accordingly surveys it with fear and with fear and with distrust. It is
impossible, on the other hand, not to perceive that all classes display the
utmost reliance upon the legislation of their country, and that they are
attached to it by a kind of parental affection.
I am wrong, however, in saying all classes; for as in America the
European scale of authority is inverted, the wealthy are there placed in a
position analogous to that of the poor in the Old World, and it is the opulent
classes which frequently look upon the law with suspicion. I have already
observed that the advantage of democracy is not, as has been sometimes
asserted, that it protects the interests of the whole community, but simply
that it protects those of the majority. In the United States, where the poor
rule, the rich have always some reason to dread the abuses of their power.
This natural anxiety of the rich may produce a sullen dissatisfaction, but
society is not disturbed by it; for the same reason which induces the rich to
withhold their confidence in the legislative authority makes them obey its
mandates; their wealth, which prevents them from making the law, prevents them
from withstanding it. Amongst civilized nations revolts are rarely excited,
except by such persons as have nothing to lose by them; and if the laws of a
democracy are not always worthy of respect, at least they always obtain it;
for those who usually infringe the laws have no excuse for not complying with
the enactments they have themselves made, and by which they are themselves
benefited, whilst the citizens whose interests might be promoted by the
infraction of them are induced, by their character and their stations, to
submit to the decisions of the legislature, whatever they may be. Besides
which, the people in America obeys the law not only because it emanates from
the popular authority, but because that authority may modify it in any points
which may prove vexatory; a law is observed because it is a self-imposed evil
in the first place, and an evil of transient duration in the second.
Activity Which Pervades All The Branches Of The Body Politic In The United
States; Influence Which It Exercises Upon Society
More difficult to conceive the political activity which pervades the United
States than the freedom and equality which reign there - The great activity
which perpetually agitates the legislative bodies is only an episode to the
general activity - Difficult for an American to confine himself to his own
business - Political agitation extends to all social intercourse - Commercial
activity of the Americans partly attributable to this cause - Indirect
advantages which society derives from a democratic government.
On passing from a country in which free institutions are established to
one where they do not exist, the traveller is struck by the change; in the
former all is bustle and activity, in the latter everything is calm and
motionless. In the one, amelioration and progress are the general topics of
inquiry; in the other, it seems as if the community only aspired to repose in
the enjoyment of the advantages which it has acquired. Nevertheless, the
country which exerts itself so strenuously to promote its welfare is generally
more wealthy and more prosperous than that which appears to be so contented
with its lot; and when we compare them together, we can scarcely conceive how
so many new wants are daily felt in the former, whilst so few seem to occur in
the latter.
If this remark is applicable to those free countries in which monarchical
and aristocratic institutions subsist, it is still more striking with regard
to democratic republics. In these States it is not only a portion of the
people which is busied with the amelioration of its social condition, but the
whole community is engaged in the task; and it is not the exigencies and the
convenience of a single class for which a provision is to be made, but the
exigencies and the convenience of all ranks of life.
It is not impossible to conceive the surpassing liberty which the
Americans enjoy; some idea may likewise be formed of the extreme equality
which subsists amongst them, but the political activity which pervades the
United States must be seen in order to be understood. No sooner do you set
foot upon the American soil than you are stunned by a kind of tumult; a
confused clamor is heard on every side; and a thousand simultaneous voices
demand the immediate satisfaction of their social wants. Everything is in
motion around you; here, the people of one quarter of a town are met to decide
upon the building of a church; there, the election of a representative is
going on; a little further the delegates of a district are posting to the town
in order to consult upon some local improvements; or in another place the
laborers of a village quit their ploughs to deliberate upon the project of a
road or a public school. Meetings are called for the sole purpose of
declaring their disapprobation of the line of conduct pursued by the
Government; whilst in other assemblies the citizens salute the authorities of
the day as the fathers of their country. Societies are formed which regard
drunkenness as the principal cause of the evils under which the State labors,
and which solemnly bind themselves to give a constant example of temperance.
^c
[Footnote c: At the time of my stay in the United States the temperance
societies already consisted of more than 270,000 members, and their effect had
been to diminish the consumption of fermented liquors by 500,000 gallons per
annum in the State of Pennsylvania alone.]
The great political agitation of the American legislative bodies, which
is the only kind of excitement that attracts the attention of foreign
countries, is a mere episode or a sort of continuation of that universal
movement which originates in the lowest classes of the people and extends
successively to all the ranks of society. It is impossible to spend more
efforts in the pursuit of enjoyment.
The cares of political life engross a most prominent place in the
occupation of a citizen in the United States, and almost the only pleasure of
which an American has any idea is to take a part in the Government, and to
discuss the part he has taken. This feeling pervades the most trifling habits
of life; even the women frequently attend public meetings and listen to
political harangues as a recreation after their household labors. Debating
clubs are to a certain extent a substitute for theatrical entertainments: an
American cannot converse, but he can discuss; and when he attempts to talk he
falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a
meeting; and if he should chance to warm in the course of the discussion, he
will infallibly say, "Gentlemen," to the person with whom he is conversing.
In some countries the inhabitants display a certain repugnance to avail
themselves of the political privileges with which the law invests them; it
would seem that they set too high a value upon their time to spend it on the
interests of the community; and they prefer to withdraw within the exact
limits of a wholesome egotism, marked out by four sunk fences and a quickset
hedge. But if an American were condemned to confine his activity to his own
affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence; he would feel an
immense void in the life which he is accustomed to lead, and his wretchedness
would be unbearable. ^d I am persuaded that, if ever a despotic government is
established in America, it will find it more difficult to surmount the habits
which free institutions have engendered than to conquer the attachment of the
citizens to freedom.
[Footnote d: The same remark was made at Rome under the first Caesars.
Montesquieu somewhere alludes to the excessive despondency of certain Roman
citizens who, after the excitement of political life, were all at once flung
back into the stagnation of private life.]
This ceaseless agitation which democratic government has introduced into
the political world influences all social intercourse. I am not sure that
upon the whole this is not the greatest advantage of democracy. And I am much
less inclined to applaud it for what it does than for what it causes to be
done.
It is incontestable that the people frequently conducts public business
very ill; but it is impossible that the lower orders should take a part in
public business without extending the circle of their ideas, and without
quitting the ordinary routine of their mental acquirements. The humblest
individual who is called upon to co-operate in the government of society
acquires a certain degree of self-respect; and as he possesses authority, he
can command the services of minds much more enlightened than his own. He is
canvassed by a multitude of applicants, who seek to deceive him in a thousand
different ways, but who instruct him by their deceit. He takes a part in
political undertakings which did not originate in his own conception, but
which give him a taste for undertakings of the kind. New ameliorations are
daily pointed out in the property which he holds in common with others, and
this gives him the desire of improving that property which is more peculiarly
his own. He is perhaps neither happier nor better than those who came before
him, but he is better informed and more active. I have no doubt that the
democratic institutions of the United States, joined to the physical
constitution of the country, are the cause (not the direct, as is so often
asserted, but the indirect cause) of the prodigious commercial activity of the
inhabitants. It is not engendered by the laws, but the people learns how to
promote it by the experience derived from legislation.
When the opponents of democracy assert that a single individual performs
the duties which he undertakes much better than the government of the
community, it appears to me that they are perfectly right. The government of
an individual, supposing an equality of instruction on either side, is more
consistent, more persevering, and more accurate than that of a multitude, and
it is much better qualified judiciously to discriminate the characters of the
men it employs. If any deny what I advance, they have certainly never seen a
democratic government, or have formed their opinion upon very partial
evidence. It is true that even when local circumstances and the disposition
of the people allow democratic institutions to subsist, they never display a
regular and methodical system of government. Democratic liberty is far from
accomplishing all the projects it undertakes, with the skill of an adroit
despotism. It frequently abandons them before they have borne their fruits,
or risks them when the consequences may prove dangerous; but in the end it
produces more than any absolute government, and if it do fewer things well, it
does a greater number of things. Under its sway the transactions of the
public administration are not nearly so important as what is done by private
exertion. Democracy does not confer the most skilful kind of government upon
the people, but it produces that which the most skilful governments are
frequently unable to awaken, namely, an all-pervading and restless activity, a
superabundant force, and an energy which is inseparable from it, and which
may, under favorable circumstances, beget the most amazing benefits. These
are the true advantages of democracy.
In the present age, when the destinies of Christendom seem to be in
suspense, some hasten to assail democracy as its foe whilst it is yet in its
early growth; and others are ready with their vows of adoration for this new
deity which is springing forth from chaos: but both parties are very
imperfectly acquainted with the object of their hatred or of their desires;
they strike in the dark, and distribute their blows by mere chance.
We must first understand what the purport of society and the aim of
government is held to be. If it be your intention to confer a certain
elevation upon the human mind, and to teach it to regard the things of this
world with generous feelings, to inspire men with a scorn of mere temporal
advantage, to give birth to living convictions, and to keep alive the spirit
of honorable devotedness; if you hold it to be a good thing to refine the
habits, to embellish the manners, to cultivate the arts of a nation, and to
promote the love of poetry, of beauty, and of renown; if you would constitute
a people not unfitted to act with power upon all other nations, nor unprepared
for those high enterprises which, whatever be the result of its efforts, will
leave a name forever famous in time - if you believe such to be the principal
object of society, you must avoid the government of democracy, which would be
a very uncertain guide to the end you have in view.
But if you hold it to be expedient to divert the moral and intellectual
activity of man to the production of comfort, and to the acquirement of the
necessaries of life; if a clear understanding be more profitable to man than
genius; if your object be not to stimulate the virtues of heroism, but to
create habits of peace; if you had rather witness vices than crimes and are
content to meet with fewer noble deeds, provided offences be diminished in the
same proportion; if, instead of living in the midst of a brilliant state of
society, you are contented to have prosperity around you; if, in short, you
are of opinion that the principal object of a Government is not to confer the
greatest possible share of power and of glory upon the body of the nation, but
to ensure the greatest degree of enjoyment and the least degree of misery to
each of the individuals who compose it - if such be your desires, you can have
no surer means of satisfying them than by equalizing the conditions of men,
and establishing democratic institutions.
But if the time be passed at which such a choice was possible, and if
some superhuman power impel us towards one or the other of these two
governments without consulting our wishes, let us at least endeavor to make
the best of that which is allotted to us; and let us so inquire into its good
and its evil propensities as to be able to foster the former and repress the
latter to the utmost.