Tocqueville - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Tocqueville

MPSlide2

Gustave de Beaumont

Alexis de Tocqueville

1806-1866

1805-1859Slide3

July Revolution 1830

Bourbon Charles X

Replaced by Louis Philippe

E Delacroix, Liberty Leading the PeopleSlide4

Dep.April

1831 arr. end of May 1831

Returned Feb 1832

Systeme Penitentiaire

1832Democracy in America 1835 and 1840

Ostensibly about America – is it actually about France?

Democratic revolution – transition from a land-based military nobility to a society of great diversity without a dominant class of caste

Change inevitable; its outcome not

Democracy as the Spirit of the Age

Democracy used in 2 ways

A society marked by equalisation of condition (Plato

Republic

Bk 9) in a democracy the people have an insatiable desire for freedom that leads them to become intolerant to constraint and to turn against authority; in Tocqueville there is a desire for equality above liberty. Can such a society be well ordered?

A form of political rule in which the people are sovereignSlide5

Democracy

Democracy was commonly understood as direct democracy; a primitive form of government; suitable to small city states or to early stages of society (as in US).

Representative democracy coined c 1780s in relation to US. Occurs in Directory. Returned to in 1830s, but more often coined as ‘representative government’.

Tocqueville asks: what kind of government is appropriate for

a democratic society, and can it be ordered to preserve liberty

He makes 3

general claimsSlide6

a. General historical thesis of tendency to equalisation of condition

a feudal structure dominated by a few families; the power of the clergy is founded and

increases;

the clergy open their ranks to rich and poor, commoner and noble; so,

equality moves into government. Society becomes more stable and law governed, - the arrival of lawyers, and their penetration into government and councils.

Kings and nobles ruin themselves with war, while the lower orders enrich themselves with commerce ,

Merchants and financiers take their place in government. The arts and literature develop, ability becomes a route to success; knowledge became an attribute of government, intelligence a social force, the educated man

takes

part in affairs of state.'

'the

value attached to high birth declined just as fast as new avenues to power were discovered'

fashion and consumption

are

inherently equalising.

every

addition to science, every fresh truth, and every new idea became a germ of power placed within the reach of the people

..'.

Literature became an arsenal open to all, where the poor and the weak daily resorted to arms'.

Everything

contributes to advance the people against their rulers.

This

is an inescapable process

a

'providential fact - all have been blind instruments in the hands of God

.'Slide7

b. The process is not fully determined

c.New science

of politics

b. It may end in tyranny or despotism - or 'democracy abandoned to its wild instincts

as in FranceOr it may end in a system in which liberty is preserved

c. But it needs a new science of politics – and that needs to study democratic society in its fullest and most peaceful form (

ie. America)

That science is not just about legal and constitutional solutions

Three major influences:

Geography and physical circs

Laws

Moeurs

– habits of the heart, the moral and intellectual condition of the peopleSlide8

Tocqueville’s moral theory

Lament for aristocratic liberty and virtue

Aristocratic freedom as freedom to act as moral agents on the public stage

The need to preserve a place for freedom and virtue, rather than just for equality and self-interest

Freedom is

central:

i

. as in Mill for diversity;

ii

. as in

Montesquieu

for security and

prosperity

iii

. the ultimate justification is neither concerned with interests, or a personal conception of the good, or over-all utility. In his

Journeys

: 'Freedom is in truth a sacred thing. There is only one thing else that better deserves the name: that is virtue. But then what else is virtue if not the free choice of what is good

.'

reciprocal character of freedom and virtueSlide9

Threats to freedom in democracy through the erosion of the moral space it relies on.

i

.

Tyranny of the Majority/of Opinionii. The valuing of equality above libertyiii The undermining of the conditions for sustaining a commitment to the public realm

iv. The threat to freedom from centralized authority.Slide10

1. Tyranny of the Majority

The essence of democratic government

in America is

the absolute sovereignty of the majority. State constitutions have done little to further and much to enhance this (although not the Federal constitution). It is achieved by dominance of people over the legislature - through frequent

elections. Government is subject to general convictions and the passions of the majority

; representatives become delegates, their freedom of action restricted, so little room for

virtue and judgment. The power of the majority is irresistible: numbers outweigh all other factors

– i.e.,

more committed to equality of influence than to substance; no qualitative discrimination is made among interests. The minority submit, acknowledging majority right (something which would not happen were

it

an elite who

formed

the

minority who could provide leadership).

No real check on legislative power; no faith in the separation of powers – see…Slide11

'If an individual is wronged in the US, to whom can he apply for redress? If to public opinion, public opinion constitutes the majority; if to the legislative, it represents the majority and implicitly obeys it; if to the executive power, it is appointed by the majority and serves as a passive tool in its hands. The public force constitutes the majority under arms; the jury is the majority invested with the right of hearing criminal cases; and in certain states even the judges are elected by the majority. However iniquitous or absurd the measure of which you complain, you must submit to it as well you can.' (Vol 1, p. 271

)

'If

a legislative power could be so constituted as to represent the majority without being a slave to its passions, an executive so as to retain a proper share of authority, and a judiciary so as to remain independent of the other two powers, a government would be formed which would still be democratic while incurring scarcely any risk of tyranny.' (I. 272)

Tyranny vs no resilient security against it

Tyranny IISlide12

tyranny III

Impact on opinion:

. 'the majority possesses a power which is physical and moral at the same time, which acts upon the will as much as upon the actions and represses not only all contest, but all controversy. I know

of

no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.'

I, 273

In absolutism, the body is chained, the soul left free; under democratic tyranny, although the body is left free, the soul is enslaved

.

One result is that there is

no

literary genius

– there is none

without freedom of opinion

- 'and

freedom of opinion does not exist in America.'

In the American republics, where the majority is so absolute and irresistible, one must give up one's rights as a citizen and almost abjure one's qualities as a man if one intends to stray from the track it prescribes.' Slide13

2. The Tendency of Equality to Undermine Freedom

Democracies love liberty, but idolize equality. (Aristotle)

'The passion for equality may elevate the humble to the rank of the great - but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.'

Need an elite to inspire respect and can act as a restraint – the judiciary and law.

His

concern is with

the way in which France unleashed a series of forces in the revolution that its institutions could not

control – that the levelling spirit means that people will brook no authority – and

in

that process, it will degenerate into anarchy that produces and necessitates, despotism –

Napoleon.

Example of T’s political sociologySlide14

3. The tendency of democracy to undermine the conditions for commitment to the public realm

virtue is a public, not a private thing - not quite classical

civitas

-but closer to the classical than the modern. Also tied to a view of political science - not just reflective, or explanatory, but orientated to

public action (in part reaction to, in part a legacy from Constant). Democratic societies, by their obsession with equality, and associated obsession with material wealth, result in individualism,

viz: a

. faith in individual reason as the sole basis of opinion and belief and (relatedly)b. self-centred, self-interested concentration on personal ends.

see Vol II, Bk 2, chap 2 'Of Individualism in Democratic Countries

'

'Selfishness

is a passionate and exaggerated love of self, which leads a man to connect everything with himself and to prefer himself to everything in the world. Individualism is a mature and calm feeling, which disposes each member of the community to sever himself from the mass of his fellows and to draw apart with his family and friends, so that after he has thus formed a little circle of his own, he willingly leaves society at large to itself.'

‘Selfishness

blights the germ of all virtue; individualism at first only saps the virtues

of public life; but in the long run it attacks and destroys all others and is at length absorbed into downright selfishness.’Slide15

Tutelary power

The first thing that strikes the observer is an innumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike, incessantly endeavouring to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives….Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself to secure their gratifications, and watch over their fate. That power is minute, regular, provident and mild…it seeks to keep them in perpetual childhood. Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things; it has predisposed men to endure them and often to look on them as benefits.Slide16

Tutelary power II

The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent and guided; men are seldom forced to act, but they are constantly retrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.’ II, 337Slide17

4. The threat to Freedom from Centralised Authority

Natural tendency in Democracies to centralise power:

i

. because all are equal all demand a common form of rule - which centralised government, rather than a government of estates, provides. 'men who live in ages of equality are naturally fond of central power and are willing to extend its privileges - the more so they think it represents their interests.'

ii. rise of individualism leads men to prefer private to public business 'their natural bias leads them to abandon the latter to the sole visible and permanent representative of the interests of the community; that is to say, the state.'

They lack the taste, and time for public business. 'Private life in democratic times is so busy, so excited, so full of wishes and of work, that hardly any energy or leisure remains to each individual for public life.' Slide18

centralisation

iii. love of individual well-being and security of property leads men to value public tranquillity 'The love of public tranquillity is frequently the only passion which these nations retain, and it becomes more active and powerful in proportion as all the other passions droop or die. This naturally disposes the members of the community constantly to surrender additional rights to the central power.' Implicit support for Mach. on tumults.

iv. Equality renders men independent, but powerless - atomised, mass society. While independence fills him with pride, powerlessness makes him feel in need of assistance and so he comes increasingly to seek the support of the state.

v. The hatred men bear to privileges increases the fewer there are. When everything is unequal, no inequality is so great as to offend the eye, 'whereas the slightest dissimilarity is odious in the midst of general uniformity.' Results in greater concentration of power.

i.e.,

there is a progressive surrender of rights and liberties in the desire to attain equality - with the result that it becomes an equality of subordination. Slide19

Does America Stand Condemned?Slide20

Restraints on the tyranny of the majority

i

. separation of government from administration; local involvement as a breakwater against central power.

‘

With

a highly centralised government and administration 'I do not hesitate to say that in such a republic a more insufferable despotism would prevail than in any of the absolute monarchies in Europe.' I. 282

i

i. Respect for legal profession

i

ii role of judges in American society

iv

Vol I, chap 17/9 'Causes which maintain democracy': natural environment; laws, customs, manners and

moeurs

('the whole moral and intellectual condition of a people').

C

rucially

, religion, where a diversity of sects is combined with a universality of moral law; Christianity reigns without obstacle, by universal consent; the consequence is that every principle of the moral world is fixed and determinate, although the political world is abandoned to the debates and experiments of men...while the law permits the Americans to do what they please, religion prevents them from conceiving, and forbids them to commit, what is rash and unjust.'Slide21

But also need more participation:

Patriotism

Patriotism - almost religious. Acting from faith and sentiment, not reason. I. 251

But it only invites transient exertions, no continuity of effort; 'Only where the manners of a people are simple, its faith unshaken, its institutions ancient and uncontested, will patriotism endure

.’

Tying of interest to country – to make a more

lasting bond. It springs from knowledge, nurtured by laws, grows by the exercise of civil rights, and is in the end confounded with the personal interests of the citizen. Man labours to promote the well-being of his country because it benefits him and 'because it is in part his own work' i.e., self-interest becomes enlarged to include public interest and the common good.Slide22

Political activity

Where

a simple society is disturbed by great changes, the only and most powerful means we have to interest men in their country is to

make them partakers of government.

how can it be that everyone takes an interest in the affairs of his township, his county and his state as if it were his own? It is because everyone, in his own sphere, takes an active part in the government of society.

Through townships etc. 'The citizen looks upon the fortune of the public as his own, and he labours for the good of the state, not merely from a sense of pride or duty, but from what I venture to term cupidity (personal vanity):

‘nothing

is more embarrassing in the ordinary intercourse of life than this irritable patriotism of the Americans

.’

But for that to be the case they must have political

rights.Slide23

good manners and customs; strong religion; independent judiciary; multiple secondary associations and intermediary associations; separation of powers. In such a state freedom, and thus virtue, can be resiliently

secured.

USA vs France