Democracy in America
Uploaded by vijayB69 on Oct 26, 2011
This paper examines Alexis de Tocqueville’s classic study of American society.
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville is a classic of world literature. De Tocqueville observed life in America closely and reported what he saw accurately, and with a great deal of intelligence and wit.
De Tocqueville’s introduction to the book gives readers a “roadmap” of what is to follow, and what he hopes to achieve by writing the work. He begins by drawing an extended parallel between the societies of America and France, and stating his belief that there has been a world-wide revolution going on, almost without notice: that everywhere aristocracies are evolving toward the democratic model, because equality, not inequality, is the natural equilibrium of society: “…the gradual progress of equality is something fated.” (P. 12). But, he says, in France the establishment of a democracy has not been orderly, but more a matter of throwing away the old order haphazardly with no idea of what to put in its place. (P. 15).
“…we have abandoned whatever good things the old order of society could provide but have not profited from what our present state can offer; we have destroyed an aristocratic society, and settling down complacently among the ruins of the old building, we seem to want to stay there like that forever.” (P. 15).
But if France is in turmoil, being comprised of a society that has decimated the aristocracy but not learned how to govern itself as a democracy, there is one country that has achieved the goal: America. De Tocqueville says that the Europeans who colonized America in the beginning of the 17th Century:
“…in some way separated the principle of democracy from all those other principles against which they contended … in … old European societies, and transplanted that principle only on the shores of the New World. It could there grow in freedom and, progressing in conformity with mores, develop peacefully within the law.” (P. 18).
From this point, De Tocqueville begins a detailed description of the physical geography of America, which leads him to a contemplation of the Native American tribes. He finds they have a democratic society largely because of their poverty; because the Native Americans were poor everyone worked hard, they were equal, and the concept of a powerful aristocracy was unknown to them....