TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
Biography of Alexis de Tocqueville -------------------------------------------------3
Flaws of the American Democratic System-----------------------------------------4
Advantages of the American Democratic System----------------------------------5
Differences between the American and the French Democratic Systems-------7
Conclusion-------------------------------------------------------------------------------9
References-------------------------------------------------------------------------------10
Sources-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------11

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 INTRODUCTION

To begin with, the movement toward democracy and equality of conditions is

believed to have been a universal phenomenon and a permanent historical tendency that
could not be stopped.

This principle was sustained by a French political thinker called Alexis de

Tocqueville who went on a journey to the United States to study how the American
democratic system maintained freedom though it was characterized by a high degree of
equality. As a result, he wrote a book called Democracy in America.

Democracy in America is divided into two volumes. Volume one focuses on the
structure of the American government and the institutions which help to maintain
freedom in said country. It also deals with a serious problem which undermines this
system: the tyranny of the majority. Volume two focuses on individuals and on the way
democracy has affected their lives, attitudes toward society and values.

Throughout this writing, my intention is to describe the main features of the

American democracy both its advantages and disadvantages- and to contrast it with the
European democratic system (specially with the French democracy).

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 BIOGRAPHY OF ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE (1805-1859)

Alexis de Tocqueville was born in Paris on July 29, 1805. Tocqueville's father
was a royalist prefect from Normandy who supported the Bourbon monarchy and his
mother was a devout Roman Catholic who strongly advocated a return on the Old
Regime.

At age 16 Tocqueville entered the College Royal in Metz to study philosophy.

During this time Tocqueville began to have doubts about the role of the aristocracy in
French government and suffered a deep religious crisis that would effect him for the rest
of his life. After finishing at the College Royal at age 18, Tocqueville moved back to
Paris where he studied law.

In the meantime, Tocqueville's father's career had been steadily advancing until,
in 1826, he became prefect of Versailles and in 1827 was made a peer by Charles X. At
the same time, Tocqueville received a position as apprentice magistrate at the Versailles
court of law. During this period Tocqueville began to have increasingly liberal
sympathies as a result of his belief that the decline of the aristocracy was inevitable.

The July Revolution of 1830, in which Charles X abdicated and Louis-Philippe

acceded to the throne, had strong repercussions on Tocqueville's life. As a result of the
revolution and the change of power from the Bourbon to the Orleans family,
Tocqueville's father lost his peerage and Tocqueville's position in France became
precarious. Seeing that France was moving toward increasing democratization, he
looked to the United States as a political model. With the pretext of wanting to study
prison reforms in America, Tocqueville obtained permission to travel there in order to
gain knowledge of American political development, knowledge which he hoped to use
in order to influence France's political development. After his trip to America,
Tocqueville visited England to study the British system of government.

In 1835, the first part of Democracy in America was published. A highly

positive and optimistic account of American government and society. That same year
Tocqueville married Mary Motley, an Englishwoman. Tocqueville's mother died in
1836.

After the death of his mother Tocqueville reentered politics. In 1837 he ran for
the Chamber of Deputies but lost, mostly because of his noble background. The
following year he was named to the Legion of Honor for Democracy in America, and
in 1839 he was elected to the Chamber.

In 1840 the second part of Democracy in America was published. This volume
was substantially more pessimistic than the first, warning of the dangers of despotism
and governmental centralization, and applying his ideas and criticisms more directly to
France. As a result, it was not received as well as the first part, except in England where
it was acclaimed highly.

In 1841 Tocqueville was elected to the French Academy and the Academy of
Moral and Political Science. That same year he visited Algeria, a French colony, and
sharply criticized the French military and bureaucracy in the country.

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 In the Chamber of Deputies, Tocqueville advocated expanding naval power to
challenge British dominance and supported the Catholic Church's teaching role in a
dispute between the Church and the University. This act was consistent with the beliefs
he outlined in Democracy in America regarding the importance of religion in a
democracy. In his political views, Tocqueville was moving increasingly toward the left.
In 1846 he aligned himself with the "new left" faction in the Chamber, but when there
was a rejection of parliamentary and electoral reform by the Chamber and the leftist
parties began a banquet campaign to garner support for the opposition, the new left did
not join because it did not want to encourage political agitation. Tocqueville gave a
speech early in 1848 predicting the outbreak of a revolution, but his warning was
ignored.

Tocqueville was opposed to the Revolution of 1848, but worked to help to form
the new government in the revolution's aftermath. He was elected to the Constituent
Assembly and helped to write the constitution of the Second Republic. The following
year Tocqueville was elected to the Legislative Assembly and became Vice President of
the Assembly and Minister of Foreign Affairs. This position did not last long, however,
because President Louis-Napolean Bonaparte dismissed him later that year. After his
dismissal Tocqueville suffered a physical breakdown and went to Italy to recover his
health.

Tocqueville returned to Paris in 1851, before Louis-Napoleon's coup took over

the government. Strongly opposed to the coup, Tocqueville was imprisoned briefly and
then barred from holding public office because he refused to swear allegiance to the
new regime.

Excluded from political life, Tocqueville focused on writing The Old Regime
and the French Revolution in the early 1850s. In 1856 Tocqueville's father died. Just a
few years later, on April 16, 1859, Tocqueville himself died of tuberculosis.1

FLAWS OF THE AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM

To begin with, according to Democracy in America, a democratic system faces

several problems. One of them is the disproportionately high portion of power in the
legislative branch: as the legislature is most directly representative of the will of the
people, it tends to be the most powerful of all the governmental branches. Thus, if there
are not sufficient checks on this power, it can easily become tyrannical. A related
constitutional issue which increases the power of the legislature is the ability of the
president to be re-elected. As the president will try to do what people want so as to
make them happy though most of the times citizens may not have the knowledge to
judge what the best action for the country might be- so that he will be re-elected, he will
lose much of his power to make independent decisions based on his judgments.
Tocqueville believes presidential re-election makes the corrupting influence of elective
governments spread wider and more dangerous. It tends to degrade the political
morality of the nation and to substitute craft for patriotism.2
Another problem of the American democracy is the direct election of
representatives and the short duration of their time in office. This result in the election
of a mediocre body of representatives and their inability to act according to their best
judgment, since they are always concerned about public opinion.

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 In addition, democracy is also threatened by the ever-present danger of excessive
love for equality. The doctrine of the sovereignty of the people and the power of public
opinion are corollaries of the idea of equality. If all are equal, then no-one has the right
to rule over another. As a consequence, the only just way to run a society is to base
decisions on the will of the majority. The problem is that this idea can easily lead to
despotism. In the United States, once the opinion of the majority has been expressed,
nobody can contradict it. People who disagree with the majority have no other power to
resort to, since the majority is the only authority and source of strength. Thus, this form
of tyranny can be considered worse than past tyrannies which involved great physical
coercion and duress. Tocqueville states, Formerly tyranny used the clumsy weapons of
chains and hangmen; nowadays even despotism, though it seemed to have nothing to
learn, has been perfected by civilization Under the absolute government of a single
man, despotism, to reach the soul, clumsily struck at the body, and the soul, escaping
from such glows, rose gloriously above it; but in democratic republics that is not at all
how tyranny behaves; it leaves the body alone and goes straight for the soul.3

Besides we can also mention two serious dangers closely related to equality:
individualism and materialism. First of all, equality makes individuals focus on their
own interests. As a result, individualism can contribute to the increase of despotism: if
people become too individualistic, they stop performing their civic duties. There is a
great tendency of democratic people to be influenced by their passions and their own
ideals, rather than by reason and the wellbeing of the society as a whole. These
passions, as a result, cloud their ability to realize which laws would actually be in their
best interests. Materialism stems from an intense love for equality as well, since
individuals consider they should be able to have as much wealth as everyone else. In
this case, people may be so concerned about their personal pursuit of wealth that they
ceased to exercise their right to Freedom.

ADVANTAGES OF THE AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM

Though the U.S. democracy can be affected by some dangerous democratic

tendencies, it is important to bear in mind that such tendencies- as Tocqueville sustains-
may be successfully curbed by certain elements. These are an independent and
influential judiciary, a strong executive branch, local self-government, administrative
decentralization, womens role in society, freedom of association and freedom of press
and religion, among others.

First, the independent judiciary is very important to preserve liberty. The reason
is based on the fact that judges have certain amount of political power they are
appointed, not elected, and they have very long terms in office- and do not have to
worry about peoples desires and opinions. In addition, the judiciary has great ability to
prevent Congressional tyranny through its power to declare certain rules
unconstitutional.

Second, the jury system is a related beneficial institution. It is a powerful tool for
public education, specially in teaching citizens how to use their freedom responsibly. As
Tocqueville states, the jury system should be regarded as a free school which is always
open and in which each juror learns his rights, comes into daily contact with the best-
educated and most-enlightened members of the upper classes, and is given practical

5
lessons in the law, lessons which the advocates efforts, the judges advice, and also the
very passions of the litigants bring within his mental grasp. I think that the main reason
for the practical intelligence and the political good sense of the Americans is their long
experience with juries in civil cases.4

Next, to avoid an extreme concentration of power in the hands of the

Legislature, a strong executive branch is required. In the United States, the president has
veto power, control of the military and the ability to check the power of the legislature.

In addition, the press can clearly be a means of keeping freedom alive and
opposing despotism. It maintains liberty by informing individuals about politics and
thus encouraging political activity and the exercise of freedom. This idea is closely
related to the right of assembly. In the United States, associations are quite beneficial
since they defend people against the tyranny of the majority and they are not inclined to
violence. What is more, they encourage individuals to exercise their freedom by
participating in politics.

Another advantage of the American democratic system is the lack of

administrative centralization. This is beneficial as citizens are able to handle their own
affairs in a better way, since the central power cannot see all the small details of
everyday life. Thus, administrative decentralization allow people to govern and
participate within those areas related to their interests (this is called local self-
government) and it also fosters a sense of civic duty.

Tocqueville also believes women play an important role in shaping society. The
principal way in which they do so is through their roles as wives and mothers. The
author sees the effort devoted by a wife to create a loving and pleasant home as not only
a matter affecting the private lives of individuals, but also as a great service to society.
He writes if anyone asks me what I think the chief cause of the extraordinary prosperity
and growing power of this nation, I should answer that it is due to the superiority of
their women.5

Finally, religion is extremely important for the preservation of democracy. In

fact, when the state and church are separated, democracy and religion complement each
other. Tocqueville sustained that religion corrects many of the flaws of democracy such
as individualism, lack of stability and materialism. Thus, religion acts as a powerful
force to prevent individuals from abusing their freedom so as to gain power. Religion
provides a common morality. It teaches individuals how to use their freedom wisely.
The author of Democracy in America states Despotism may be able to do without
faith, but freedom cannot How could a society escape destruction if, when political
ties are relaxed, moral ties are not tightened? And what can be done with a people
master of itself if it is not subject to God?6

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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE AMERICAN AND THE FRENCH
DEMOCRATIC SYSTEMS

According to Tocqueville, there are many reasons why a strong democracy, like
the one in the United States, could not be established in France. This is primarily based
on the significant differences between the American democratic system and the failed
attempts at democratic government in France.

To begin with, in the United States there is no administrative centralization -it

deals with nation-wide interests- but high government centralization -it deals with more
specific concerns-. This is quite beneficial as people is allowed to exercise their
freedom. Citizens, rather than government, are the ones in charge of handling their own
affairs. Thus, they learn to care about their nations interests. On the contrary, France is
characterized by administrative centralization. As a result, individuals have neither
control nor interest in the management of local affairs. They become dependent on
governmental decisions every time a difficulty arises. The lack of these small liberties is
a key factor in the failure of the French Revolution.

In addition, the position of the President of the United States also differs from
that of a Constitutional king in France. The President has no real legislative power. He
can neither choose the members of the legislature nor dissolve it. And he even has less
power than the legislative body. All his executive actions are under supervision and he
must account for his conduct. Unlike before, the king of France is equal in power to the
legislature and he even possesses legislative power.

As regards the conception of freedom, there are also great differences between
both democratic systems. Since in the United States individuals have had political rights
from the beginning, the idea of freedom is firmly established in societies. Tocqueville
writes that if despotism ever came to be established in the United States it would find it
even more difficult to overcome the habits that have sprung from freedom than to
conquer the love of freedom itself.7 On the contrary, he realizes the French lack this
apprenticeship in freedom which characterizes the American population and thus it is
really difficult to make people value its importance. Some will believe despotism can
bring order and stability to the country and so they will even surrender their freedom.

Regarding social values, such as the importance of the family and the respect of
women, Tocqueville finds that the United States is the country where marriage is most
respected, and he attributed the stability of the American society to the strength of this
institution. He further states: In Europe, almost all the disorders of society are born
around the domestic heart and not far from the nuptial bed. It is there that men come to
feel scorn for natural ties and legitimate pleasures and develop a taste for disorder,
restlessness of spirit, and insatiability of desires. () Whereas the European tries to
escape his sorrows at home by troubling society, the American derives from his home
the love of order which he carries over into affairs of the state.8

Finally, one of the most striking differences lies in the church-state relationship.
In American the church is separated from the state. This greatly contributes to the
maintenance of the democratic society. To begin with, democracies are in danger of
degenerating into individualism, materialism and despotism due to their excessive love
for equality and lack of appreciation for liberty. Religion is an effective counter to these

7
tendencies. As it has been previously explained, religion is used to teach people how to
use their freedom. In contrast, the discarding of religion is considered by Tocqueville
one of the principal reasons for the failure of the French Revolution and for the huge
social and political crisis which followed. He sustains: By a strange concatenation of
events, religion for the moment has become entangled with those institutions which
democracy overthrows, and so it is often brought to rebuff the equality which it loves
and to abuse freedom as it adversary, whereas by taking it by the hand it could sanctify
its striving.9

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 CONCLUSION

To sum up, Tocquevilles central concern in Democracy in America is the

problem of maintaining freedom with the growing equality of conditions both in the
United States and Europe.

Throughout this work we have been able to observe that democracies tend to be
weakened by certain tendencies despotism, individualism, materialism-. As a result,
individuals prefer losing part of their freedom in order to attain wealth and power to
leading a coherent life in which equality and freedom can complement each other.

Nevertheless, Tocqueville affirms that there are certain ways to combat these
tendencies: administrative decentralization which fosters the establishment of local
governments, a strong independent judiciary, freedom of association and religion, to
name only a few. He further maintains that as the American society contains all these
elements and as it also has a natural taste for liberty, it is possible to prevent the
degeneration of United States democracy into despotism.

All things considered, Tocqueville is convinced that through a combination of

accidental factors such as geography and the composition of the population-
constitutional rights and rooted local liberties, the United States has done a remarkable
job in creating a democratic government which is relatively stable and protects liberty.

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 REFERENCES

1. The biography has been extracted from

http://www.gradesavers.com/classicnotes/authors/about_alexis_tocqueville.html _
March 29, 2008

2. http://www.gradesavers.com/classicnotes/authors/about_alexis_tocqueville.html _
March 29, 2008 Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville Volume I, Part I,
Chapter 6

3. http://www.gradesavers.com/classicnotes/authors/about_alexis_tocqueville.html _
March 29, 2008 Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville Volume I, Part I,
Chapter 7

4. http://www.gradesavers.com/classicnotes/authors/about_alexis_tocqueville.html _
March 29, 2008 Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville Volume I, Part II,
Chapter 8

5. http://www.gradesavers.com/classicnotes/authors/about_alexis_tocqueville.html _
March 29, 2008 Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville Volume II, Part III,
Chapter 10

6. http://www.gradesavers.com/classicnotes/authors/about_alexis_tocqueville.html _
March 29, 2008 Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville Volume I, Part II,
Chapter 9

7. http://www.gradesavers.com/classicnotes/authors/about_alexis_tocqueville.html _
March 29, 2008 Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville Volume I, Part II,
Chapter 6

8. http://www.gradesavers.com/classicnotes/authors/about_alexis_tocqueville.html _
March 29, 2008 Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville Volume II, Part III,
Chapter 8

9. http://www.gradesavers.com/classicnotes/authors/about_alexis_tocqueville.html
-March 29, 2008 (Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville Volume I, Part II,
Chapter 9)

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 SOURCES

http://www.tocqueville.org/ - March 29, 2008

http://xroads.virginia.edu/HYPER/DETOC/home.html - March 29, 2008

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville - March 29, 2008

http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/authors/about_alexis_tocquevill
e.html - March 29, 2008

http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/19/nov00/tocque.htm - March 29,

2008

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