Democracy in America

Citation

Tocqueville, A. de. (1835–1840). Democracy in America (H. Reeve, Trans.), 2 vols. Saunders and Otley. Free official edition: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/815 (Volume 1) and https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/816 (Volume 2)

Chapter Summary

Context and Argument

Volume 1 appeared in 1835 and Volume 2 in 1840. In the Introductory Chapter Tocqueville says that nothing struck him more in the United States than the general equality of conditions, and that he came to see it as the fact from which all others seem derived. He saw the same equality advancing in Europe and treats the "great democratic revolution" as irresistible, not as an accident that can be halted. In the Preface to Volume 2 he adds that he is "not an adversary of democracy", and that for this reason he gives most attention to the dangers it carries.

The two volumes have different subjects. Volume 1 examines American laws and political institutions and the causes that keep the democratic republic going. Volume 2 asks how equality of conditions changes intellectual life, feelings, manners and finally political society in general, and it draws on American examples without being limited to them.

Volume 1: Introductory Chapter and Chapters I–III

The Introductory Chapter sets out the equality of conditions and the long democratic revolution. Chapter I describes the geography of North America. Chapter II traces the origin of the Anglo-Americans, especially the New England colonies, whose early laws and "social contract" joined religious zeal to republican spirit. Chapter III argues that a nation's social condition is the source of most of its laws and customs.

Volume 1: Chapters IV–VII

Chapter IV treats the sovereignty of the people as the governing principle in America and traces the spread of the vote. Chapter V insists on studying the states before the Union: it covers the township, the county and state government, and compares the New England system with France. Chapter VI describes the judicial power, including the courts' right to declare laws unconstitutional, and Chapter VII treats political jurisdiction and impeachment.

Volume 1: Chapters VIII–IX

Chapter VIII covers the origin and weakness of the first Union, the making of the Federal Constitution and how its institutions work. Chapter IX asks in what sense the people may strictly be said to govern in the United States.

Volume 1: Chapters X–XII

These chapters take up parties, the liberty of the press and political associations. Tocqueville distinguishes great parties from small ones, discusses the extinction of the old Federalist and Republican parties, and argues that freedom of the press follows from popular sovereignty. He describes the daily use Americans make of association, including the 1831 tariff convention, and regards it as a necessary counterweight in a democracy.

Volume 1: Chapters XIII–XIV

Chapter XIII deals with the government of democracy in America, including the instability of administration. Chapter XIV asks what real advantages American society derives from democracy, and he stresses that the American Constitution is one form a democracy may take rather than the best.

Volume 1: Chapters XV–XVI

Chapter XV argues that the essence of democratic government is the sovereignty of the majority and describes the moral power of the majority and the tyranny it can exercise over opinion. Chapter XVI then lists causes that soften this tyranny, beginning with the fact that the national majority must rely on town and county magistrates to carry out its decisions.

Volume 1: Chapter XVII

The chapter on the principal causes maintaining the democratic republic ranks them: physical circumstances matter, laws matter more, and manners most. It discusses federal institutions, municipal institutions and the judiciary as the legal causes, and the position of religion in the United States.

Volume 1: Chapter XVIII and Conclusion

Chapter XVIII examines the Indians, the enslaved and free Black population, and the stability of the Union. The Conclusion looks from a distance at the future of the United States.

Volume 2, Book Two, Section I: Intellect (Chapters I–XXI)

Tocqueville describes the "philosophical method" of Americans, who seek the reasons of things in themselves, and the force of public opinion as a source of belief. He then discusses religion, practical against theoretical science, the arts, literature, language, the drama, history and parliamentary eloquence.

Volume 2, Book Two, Section 2: Feelings (Chapters I–XX)

This section begins with love of equality and then defines individualism as a calm feeling that disposes each person to draw apart with family and friends. Chapters IV–IX describe how Americans counteract it through free institutions, associations, newspapers and the doctrine of "interest rightly understood". Chapters X–XX deal with the taste for physical well-being, restlessness, religion, industrial callings, and the warning that manufactures may create a new aristocracy.

Volume 2, Book Three: Manners (Chapters I–XXVI)

The book covers how equality softens manners, the relations of masters and servants, wages, the family, the education of young women, marriage and the equality of the sexes, honour, ambition, revolutions, and the character of democratic armies and wars.

Volume 2, Book Four: Political Society (Chapters I–VIII)

Tocqueville argues that equality inclines people towards both freedom and centralised power. Chapter VI, "What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear", describes a mild, regulating power that leaves citizens comfortable but reduces them to timid dependants. Chapter VIII is a general survey.

Key Concepts

Volume 1

• Equality of conditions: the basic social fact from which Tocqueville derives opinions, laws and customs.
• Sovereignty of the people: the principle that governs American society and government.
• Tyranny of the majority: the unchecked moral and legal power of the majority.
• Laws and manners: the physical circumstances, the laws and the manners of a people ranked as causes of the republic's survival.

Volume 2

• Individualism: a mature feeling that leads each to withdraw into a small circle, distinguished from egotism.
• Interest rightly understood: the doctrine that private interest is served by service to others.
• Soft despotism: a gentle, protective central power that suppresses initiative.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Institutions and culture in one study. The two volumes link laws, associations and religion with ideas, family life and tastes, so that political structure is read in its social setting.
• Candour about method and aim. The Preface to Volume 2 states that the book attributes to equality only what equality modifies, and that dangers are emphasised by choice.
• A clear theory of survival. Chapter XVII sets physical circumstances, laws and manners in order and shows how the democratic republic is kept going.

Limitations

• Race and the Indian nations are treated within the question of the Union. Chapter XVIII discusses the Indians and the Black population as part of the future of the United States, so readers who want the perspective of those groups must look elsewhere.
• Generalisation from limited observation. The Volume 2 chapters on literature, family and manners generalise from American observations and are stated as impressions rather than tested.
• Length and structure. The book is long, and the 1840 volume is more abstract than the first.
• Dated institutions. The accounts of parties, the Bank, and state administration describe the 1830s.

Where It Fits in the Course

Tocqueville's book is a descriptive study of a working republic in a course otherwise dominated by arguments about the origin and limits of government. It connects with Mill's On Liberty, which draws on its account of majority opinion, and with Locke's Second Treatise and Rousseau's The Social Contract, whose ideas of popular sovereignty it observes in practice. It also invites comparison with Aristotle's Politics, which also studies how constitutions shape character, and with Marx and Engels's The Communist Manifesto, which describes the same industrial society as one of class conflict.

Strauss and Cropsey's History of Political Philosophy and Wolin's Politics and Vision discuss Tocqueville's place in the tradition.

How to Use This Book

Plan for a long book. A shorter route through Volume 1 is the Introductory Chapter, Chapters II–V in part, IX, XIV–XVII and the Conclusion; in Volume 2, the Preface, the chapters on individualism and associations in Section 2 (Chapters II–V and VIII), Book Four, Chapters I–VIII, and selected chapters from Books Two and Three. Chapters on law, courts and the press can be read in a second pass.

Note that the Reeve translation (1835 and 1840) is divided into books, sections and chapters differently from more recent translations, including the Chicago edition listed on this page, so match passages by chapter title. For coursework, a modern annotated translation is advisable. Ask of each chapter what it claims about equality of conditions, and what evidence it gives from American practice.

Edition and Sources

This guide is based on the Henry Reeve translation as reproduced in Project Gutenberg eBooks #815 and #816 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/815, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/816). The contents lists of both volumes, the Introductory Chapter, the Preface to Volume 2, Reeve's chapter summaries for Volume 1 and the openings of the chapters named above (including Volume 1, Chapters V, IX, XIII, XIV, XVII and the Conclusion, and Volume 2, Section 2, Chapters II, IV and IX, Book Three, Chapter XII, and Book Four, Chapters VI and VIII) were read.