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Alexis de Tocqueville
In the United States, there is nothing more highly coveted than the idea of Democracy. A
method of election which has transcended the mere process through which we elect our officials,
which has blossomed into a cultural identity many feel denotes what it is to be an American. It
was this infatuation with the idea of democracy that Alexis de Tocqueville recognized in
Alexis de Tocqueville was born in France in 1805 and grew to have a tremendous
influence in both France and the United States (3). He was a diplomat, social scientist, writer,
and philosopher with his most influential work in the US being his book, Democracy in America.
He published the book in two volumes the first in 1835 and the second in 1840 (2). Both
followed a trip which Tocqueville took across the US observing the prisons in America (8).
Alexis de Tocqueville firmly believed that the world was moving in toward a purely democratic
future (8). As such he sought out to understand one of the most successful democracies at the
time in the United States, evaluating what it had accomplished, and what could be improved.
One of the most salient observations which Tocqueville made was the way in which
democracy strengthened the idea of a national identity and a profound pride therein. This he
noted was particularly evident in the United States and he is often credited with the inception of
lamb from the law was seen to be a poor individual, trapped by circumstance (8). Some might
even feel compelled to help the criminal. In America however, this was in no way the case.
Rather, the criminal was something less than human who threatened the common good (8). In
this way Tocqueville observed that the US citizens shared a profound sense of cultural unity and
morality stemming in large part from religious influences (8). Tocqueville saw the role of
Religion in the US as an invaluable cornerstone of the democracy such that it gave an object
standard of morality to the people when government could not (8). Thus regardless of whatever
discourse took place the Bible would always serve as a grounding influence.
Tocqueville also recognized the potential danger of this blind following in public
communitarianism (8). To express this Tocqueville coined the phrase the tyranny of the
majority. In essence he believed that Democracy was the inevitable direction in which the
governments of the world were headed; however, he feared that this majority rule philosophy
would discriminate against the minority, creating despotism of an entirely new breed (8). To this
end, due to the fact that politicians were so beholden to their constituents it seemed to follow that
when confronting a given issue, they would not be able to exercise their best judgement as they
would have to act to mirror the opinion of the majority of the electorate even as ill-advised as it
might be (7). In this vein Tocqueville felt that legislative branch of government was given too
much power and should be hindered by more checks and balances (7).
observed with slavery as well as the extermination of the Native Americans (8). These he felt
were symptomatic of the sense of entitlement which so many Americans enjoyed stemming from
their democracy. Beyond this he is further disappointed by the American politicians and their
self-aggrandizing motives (8). Alexis de Tocqueville also identifies a myriad of other elements
which he felt could threaten to compromise the integrity of a democracy. Among these were an
abuse of individual freedom or lack thereof, an excess of equity, too much individualism, and
materialism (7). In the interest of mending the issues which he saw in the future of democracy
Alexis de Tocqueville felt that ardent pillars of any democracy must be freedom of speech,
freedom of the press, and freedom of association; strong judicial and executive branches of
government; and local self-government such as too de-centralize government (7). The last of
these stipulations Tocqueville saw as the preeminent reason for the failure of the French
Revolution (7).
The US in the modern day has largely embraced Alexis de Tocquevilles assessment of
American democracy clearly taking to heart and epitomizing much of what Tocqueville sees as
the necessary ingredients to an effective democracy. In both undergraduate and graduate level
studies in the US Tocqueville is widely read and dissected (1). Nonetheless, it cannot be ignored
how the US has on countless occasions exemplified the vision which Tocqueville feared would
come to fruition with a systematic discrimination toward minorities, and the manipulation of
facts which mislead the public. Like few other events in history, Trumps presidency shows the
way in which objective judgement for the most powerful man on the earth can be convoluted by
the angered cries of a people brought to believe in a false reality by a systemically flawed media.
Almost two centuries later a book written by Bernard-Henri Levy, American Vertigo:
original, Democracy in America. Very similar to Alexis de Tocqueville in writing his book Levy
traveled extensively in the US prior to the publication of his book, exploring the countries
prisons as well as interviewing a wide range of individuals from vastly varying socioeconomic
places (2). Despite this however, and contrary to what the title might lead one to believe, Levy
was very cognizant of the fact that his book bears no true comparison with the original (2).
Of course the two books were written in vastly different eras with American Vertigo
published as recently as 2006. As such where Alexis de Tocqueville was analyzing the
advantages and pitfalls of the burgeoning governmental structure of democracy, the closest Levy
gets is a brief critic of neo-conservatism and the direction which President Bush was taking the
United States (2). Regrettably more evident however, is the profound hyperbole, grandiose
generalizations, and generally unsubstantiated conclusions which pervade the work as a whole
(4). In The New York Times review of American Vertigo they talk at length of the way in which
all Americans to a sect of obese gun wielding oafs preaching religious verses to any who will
listen (4). Indeed it would seem that comparing Levys work to that of Alexis de Tocquevilles
4. Keillor, Garrison. On the Road Avec M. Lvy. The New York Times, The New York
5. Remy, Richard C. United States government: democracy in action. New York, Glencoe
McGraw-Hill, 2005.
www.marxists.org/reference/archive/de-tocqueville/democracy-america/introduction.htm.
8. Wood, James. Tocqueville in America. The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 22 July 2015,
2017.