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Ben Keltner

4/4/2017

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

American society and sought to understand.

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

the concept of American Exceptionalism. In Europe, Tocqueville remarked, a criminal on the

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).

In his observations of Americans Tocqueville is also critical of the atrocities which he

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:

Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville merited comparison to Alexis de Tocquevilles

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

Levy seems content to convey a tremendous amount of condescension as he narrowly relegates

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

two volume master pieces is incredibly diminutive.


Works Cited

1. Alexis de Tocqueville on the Tyranny of the Majority | EDSITEment. EDSITEment!

The Best of the Humanities on the Web, edsitement.neh.gov/curriculum-unit/alexis-de-

tocqueville-tyranny-majority. Accessed 4 Apr. 2017.

2. American Vertigo . Enotes.com, Enotes.com, www.enotes.com/topics/american-

vertigo. Accessed 4 Apr. 2017.

3. History.com Staff. Alexis de Tocqueville. History.com, A&E Television Networks,

2009, www.history.com/topics/alexis-de-tocqueville. Accessed 4 Apr. 2017.

4. Keillor, Garrison. On the Road Avec M. Lvy. The New York Times, The New York

Times, 29 Jan. 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/books/review/on-the-road-avec-m-

levy.html. Accessed 4 Apr. 2017.

5. Remy, Richard C. United States government: democracy in action. New York, Glencoe

McGraw-Hill, 2005.

6. Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy In America by Alexis de Tocqueville 1831.

Democracy In America by Alexis de Tocqueville 1831,

www.marxists.org/reference/archive/de-tocqueville/democracy-america/introduction.htm.

Accessed 4 Apr. 2017.

7. Tocqueville, Alexis de, et al. Democracy in America Summary. GradeSaver: Getting

you the grade, www.gradesaver.com/democracy-in-america. Accessed 4 Apr. 2017.

8. Wood, James. Tocqueville in America. The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 22 July 2015,

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/05/17/tocqueville-in-america. Accessed 4 Apr.

2017.

Modern Language Association 8th edition formatting by BibMe.org.

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