Alexis De Tocqueville

The next entry to History of Political Philosophy is Marvin Zetterbaum’s essay on Alexis De Tocqueville, one of the first philosophers to fully address the American experiment. Though included in History of Political Philosophy and very much a philosopher in the lose sense, Tocqueville is also an early sociologists, rooting his study of politics on what the effects democracy as a first principle as well as social conditions had on a people. Tocqueville’s focus on social conditions, though not a master key to understand society is still a highly important aspect of this task. Social conditions and first principles are deeply connected as in democratic societies, the social condition regards equality as a first principle. Humans have the power to determine the first principles of the society they live in, but not the outcome of these conditions. This is important as it suggests that Tocqueville is neither a hard determinist nor a metaphysical libertarian. There is also some elements of historical inevitability here as Tocqueville sees democracy as eventually triumphing over slavery.

One thing that should be noted though is that even though democracy has equality as a first principle, this is not an absolute equality of material conditions. Rather, what is meant by “equality” here is legal equality. It is also important to remember that Tocqueville is not completely uncritical of democracy has he does see atomism, the dislocation of individuals from society as a possible effect of democracy. This ties in closely with what Tocqueville identifies as the three codes of a class-based society democracy has over turned. These three codes are as follows: 1)The barriers separating the classes have been toppled, 2) Property has been divided and equalized, and 3) new centers of social, intellectual, and political achievement have been opened to all. For all the problems class-based societies had, they were able to maintain great social bonds, but the loss of these aspects of class-based society under democracy have caused a loss of these social bonds. Because society cannot last for long without some social bonds, democratic societies must reformulate these bonds under a new democratic framework. This needs to be done as atomization runs the risk of people falling into self-absorption which will itself lead to mediocrity and soft tyranny. Another possible development of atomization is that people may begin to live without constraints.      

Overall though, Tocqueville does have a positive perception of democracy as he sees the horrors of the French Revolution as being only temporary and not characteristic of democracy, but rather of revolution. Because of this, French Revolutionary horrors are not a challenge to democracy. For Tocqueville, the true challenges to democracy are much more subtle. Commerce is seen as both a major benefit and as a major problem of democracy as while it brings great wealth and freedom, it can also lead to the development of a new aristocracy. This is important as it diminishes equality. For Tocqueville, one of the reasons equality is to be valued is because equality allows for the development of more sympathy as the more people are seen as alike, the more empathy they will have for one another.

Still, Tocqueville is well aware that democracy has the power to establish tyranny just as easily as it has freedom. Because of this, the passion of democracy must be restrained for the good of democracy as passions such as equality can lead to tyranny. Likewise, majorities must be restrained or the tyranny of the majority can develop. Though democracy has these problems, any attempt to solve these problems must take place in the general framework of democracy. One example of this is that radical individualism can only be solved through the participation in voluntary organizations. Because of this general principle, Tocqueville also champions the idea of federalism and champions local governance as this is seen as a proper channel for individualism. Likewise, this is why Tocqueville sees freedom of association as the most important freedom as this freedom can create an independent citizenry which also helps them to be better engaged in democracy. Democratic governance is seen as needed self-interest, but this must be a self-interest properly understood. The idea of “self-interest properly understood” is important because following from Hobbes, Tocqueville sees humans as being primarily a self-interested creature.

Religion is championed by Tocqueville as it is seen as embodying the best aspects of democracy while putting a check on its worst aspects. Freedom is seen as being grounded in morality and morality is seen as being grounded in religion. Even false religions still are seen as being able to perform these positive social functions. This does not mean Tocqueville is suggesting a strong Church-state partnership as religion needs to be separate from politics in order to get its full benefits. This is important as democracy is seen as being grounded in natural rights and is also seen as leading to a greater universalization of these rights. Because of this then, religion has an important part to play in the triumph of democracy over slavery.