Democracy in America - Alexis De Tocqueville (1835-1840) PDF

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Assigned readings and quiz answers for Professor Olwell's HIS 315 Class...

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Democracy in America - Alexis De Tocqueville (1835-1840) -MAJOR TOPICS: SELF INTEREST RIGHTLY UNDERSTOOD/INDIVIDUALISM, POLITICAL LIBERTY VS EQUALITY, FORMATION OF ASSOCIATIONS, RESTLESSNESS/SOCIAL MOBILITY/FROZEN STREAM, OBSESSION WITH PHYSICAL POSSESSIONS TO MEASURE EQUALITY, POTENTIAL FOR DESPOT -De Tocqueville was a french diplomat, historian, and political scientist who came to tour america and write about his findings -This Frenchman wrote "Democracy in America" in the 1830s after an extensive tour on behalf of the French government. He wrote about Americans' obsession with being as good as their neighbor, and said that individualism, self-interest rightly understood, was a public good resulting in extensive cooperative associations -Relationship between political freedom (democracy) and social and economic equality -"Taste for physical well-being" = consumption as a market of success -Restlessness = desire for success and fear of failure -"Democratic Despotism: Jackson? DEMOCRACIES HAVE TENDENCY TO CONCENTRATE POWER BC PEOPLE ARE BUSY SO THERES THE OPPORTUNITY FOR SOMEONE TO STEP UP AND PROMISE TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC FREEDOM IF THE SOCIETY HANDS THEM OVER TO THE DESPOT. PEOPLE WANT TO BE LED BUT ALSO WISH TO BE FREE -BELIEVED THE WAY AMERICA IS IN 1830 IS THE WAY THE WORLD WILL BE IN THE FUTURE (DEMOCRACY) -Liberty meant political liberty

-Force of democracy pulls people down to a level -EQUALITY OF CONDITION IS SOMETHING YOU SEE EVERY DAY BY COMPARING YOUR POSSESSION TO THAT OF YOUR NEIGHBOR BUT POLITICAL LIBERTY IS SOMETHING YOU ONLY EXERCISE RARELY -INDIVIDUALISM: IN ARISTOCRACY PEOPLE FEEL CONNECT/OBLIGATED TO PAST AND HEIRS BUT AMERICANS ARE NOT LIKE THIS. THEY ARE DISCONNECTED THEY SEE THEMSELVES AND THEIR FAM AS STANDING ALONE, A SINGLE UNIT, EVERY AMERICAN STANDS ALONE -HOWEVER, AMERICANS HAVE A KNACK FOR FORMING CLUBS THAT ARE FORMED OUT OF A SHARED BUT INDIVIDUAL INTEREST (VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION) -SELF INTEREST IN AMER: IN REPUBLICAN ERA IT WAS A CANCER, MADISON THEN SAID IT WAS INEVITABLE, THEN HAMILTON SAID HE COULD USE SELF INTEREST FOR POLITICAL GAIN, JACKSONIANS SAY AS LONG AS IT IS DONE BY FOLLOWING THE RULES AND CALMLY THEN IT CREATES HARMONY. SELF INTEREST AND THE PUBLIC GOOD BECOME SYNONYMOUS THEY PRODUCE CIVIC VIRTUE RATHER THAN DESTROY IT - “Restlessness”: social mobility is spurred on by the ambition of reaching the top and by the fear of dropping to the bottom - Believes LIBERTY and EQUALITY are two different things, even two unequal things - Liberty/freedom has appeared in the world at different times and has not been bound exclusivley to any social condition and IS NOT CONFINED TO DEMOCRACIES - EQUALITY of condition however is the fact that marks the ages defined as democracies and the ruling passion of men in these times is equality - Believes men naturally prefer equality to freedom, they believe it to

be dear and also to last forever - Equality manifests itself daily while political liberty is something men only experience every so often - MEN HAVE A NATURAL TASTE FOR LIBERTY AND LEFT TO THEMSELVES THEY WILL PURSUE IT; HOWEVER THEY HAVE A MUCH MORE ARDENT PASSION FOR EQUALITY AND WILL SEEK IT ALWAYS -Difference between selfishness and individualism: Selfishness: passionate and exaggerated love of self which leads a man to connect everything with himself and prefer himself to everything else in the world. Self interest blights the germ of all virtue; Self interest is a vice as old as the world, which does not belong to one form of society more than to another: Individualism is a mature and calm feeling, which disposes each member of the community to sever himself from the mass of his fellowcreatures; and to draw apart with his family and his friends; so that, after he has thus formed a little circle of his own, he willingly leaves society at large to itself. individualism, at first, only saps the virtues of public life; but, in the long run, it attacks and destroys all others, and is at length absorbed in downright self interest. individualism is of democratic origin, and it threatens to spread in the same ratio as the equality of conditions. -In aristocracies men are conscious of the fixed position they occupy and they know who is above and below them and this helps them organize how they interact -In Democracies devoted service to one man is more rare because you are not occupying those fixed positions -Aristocracy chains members of a community together, democracy breaks the chain -Says americans have used self interested co-operation to form free

institutions that prevent them from becoming divided. Both in economics and politics. “He will discover, without being shown to him, the close tie that unites private to general interest”. This is important because in democracies people are so busy pursuing their individualism that the potential arises for a despot to take control simply because the citizens have no time to govern themselves. -”Thus the most democratic country on the face of the earth is that in which men have in our time carried to the highest perfection the art of pursuing in common the object of their common desires, and have applied this new science to the greatest number of purposes.” -In aristocracies this is not necessary because so few people have the power to affect change that they can accomplish it without the need of help from others -” Amongst democratic nations, on the contrary, all the citizens are independent and feeble; they can do hardly anything by themselves, and none of them can oblige his fellow-men to lend him their assistance. They all, therefore, fall into a state of incapacity, if they do not learn voluntarily to help each other. If men living in democratic countries had no right and no inclination to associate for political purposes, their independence would be in great jeopardy; but they might long preserve their wealth and their cultivation: whereas if they never acquired the habit of forming associations in ordinary life, civilization itself would be endangered.” -ADT says that these associations should be there so that they can stand in lieu of the powers of the government so that it is not the only one -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Self interest rightly understood: “They therefore do not deny that every man may follow his own interest; but they endeavor to prove that it is the interest of every man to be virtuous.” -Accept that men are self interested but make them interested in virtue. An enlightened sense of themselves makes men willing to assist one another and sacrifice a portion of their time and property to

the welfare of the state -adt argues that this concept alone produces no great acts of sacrifice but small daily acts of self denial that discipline a man so that he may become virtuous -This concept prevents men from rising far above the level of mankind while also catches and restrains those falling below it ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Restlessness - When things like property and education are widely diffused, the desire of acquiring it occupies the minds of the poor and the fear of losing it the rich (restlessness) - “The love of well-being has become the prominent taste of the union” - Americans are attached to their possessions bc of the work it took to gain them and the dear they have of losing them -Says americans are restless even in their world of abundance -Attributes this to the fluidity of the society and the great amount of social mobility both good and bad (frozen stream) -Because they have made it possible for all to be successful, they also make it harder because theres more competition -The closer you get to equal conditions, the more obvious inequalities become and thus they cause people to think more about them ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Masters and Servants

-in Aristocracies there exists entire separate classes between the two because the two are fixed -In democracies the same classes do not exist because the servant has the potential for social mobility, to change his condition, as well as the master has the possibility of losing his -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Women -Education of women in the US focuses on enhancing her confidence in the strength of her character so that she does not lose her virtue and this is made necessary because the democratic institutions that surround them are dangers to their virtue Wives -The sources of a married woman’s happiness are in the home of her husband and this is the only road to domestic happiness ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Equality and Free Institutions -equality naturally gives men a taste for free institutions because they develop the habit of following in their private actions with no other guide than their own will. -Bc of this ADT feels anarchy is NOT a threat to democracies because the spirit of independence prevents it --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Democracy and Power concentration

- As the conditions of men become equal amongst a people, individuals seem of less importance, and society of greater dimensions; or rather, every citizen, being assimilated to all the rest, is lost in the crowd, and nothing stands conspicuous but the great and imposing image of the people at large. This naturally gives the men of democratic periods a lofty opinion of the privileges of society, and a very humble notion of the rights of individuals; they are ready to admit that the interests of the former are everything, and those of the latter nothing. They are willing to acknowledge that the power which represents the community has far more information and wisdom than any of the members of that community; and that it is the duty, as well as the right, of that power to guide as well as govern each private citizen. -There should be no limit to the power of the supreme branch of govt and the laws it makes should apply uniformly to all citizens -People also tend to want the government to stay out of the affairs of businesses they are not a part of, but do seek special treatment from the govt when it comes to the business they are in -Believes equality suggests to men that the best form of government is a sole, uniform, and strong one and this type of govt is what future democracies will have --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Despotism Threats -men want to be led because they are too busy to do it themselves but also want to remain free so the solution is to devise a strong central government but have it elected by the people -But ADT warns that this is dangerous because it leaves the possibility of a despot arising because someone can step up and claim they will protect

public freedom if they are just given the power too and then they take advantage of it...