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ON passing from a country in which free institutions are established to
one where they do not exist, the traveler is struck by the change; in the
former all is bustle and activity, in the latter everything is calm and
motionless. In the one, melioration and progress are the general topics
of inquiry; in the other, it seems as if the community only aspired to
repose in the enjoyment of the advantages which it has acquired. Nevertheless,
the country which exerts itself so strenuously to promote its welfare is
generally more wealthy and more prosperous than that which appears to be
so contented with its lot; and when we compare them together, we can scarcely
conceive how so many new wants are daily felt in the former, while so few
seem to occur in the latter. |
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Related Texts
Tocqueville's Sovereignty
of the People |
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If this remark is applicable to those free countries in which monarchical
and aristocratic institutions subsist, it is still more striking with regard
to democratic republics. In these States it is not only a portion of the
people which is busied with the melioration of its social condition, but
the whole community is engaged in the task; and it is not the exigencies
and the convenience of a single class for which a provision is to be made,
but the exigencies and the convenience of all ranks of life. |
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General Tendency
of the Laws
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It is not impossible to conceive the surpassing liberty which the Americans
enjoy; some idea may likewise be formed of the extreme equality which subsists
among them; but the political activity which pervades the United States
must be seen in order to be understood. No sooner do you set foot upon
the American soil than you are stunned by a kind of tumult; a confused
clamor is heard on every side; a thousand simultaneous voices demand the
immediate satisfaction of their social wants. Everything is in motion around
you; here, the people of one quarter of a town are met to decide upon the
building of a church; there, the election of a representative is going
on; a little farther, the delegates of a district are posting to the town
in order to consult upon some local improvements; or, in another place,
the laborers of a village quit their ploughs to deliberate upon the project
of a road or a public school. Meetings are called for the sole purpose
of declaring their disapprobation of the line of conduct pursued by the
Government; while in other assemblies the citizens salute the authorities
of the day as the fathers of their country. Societies are formed which
regard drunkenness as the principal cause of the evils under which the
State labors, and which solemnly bind themselves to give a constant example
of temperance. |
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The great political agitation of the American legislative bodies, which
is the only kind of excitement that attracts the attention of foreign countries,
is a mere episode or a sort of continuation of that universal movement
which originates in the lowest classes of the people and extends successively
to all the ranks of society. It is impossible to spend more efforts in
the pursuit of enjoyment. |
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The cares of political life engross a most prominent place in the occupation
of a citizen in the United States; and almost the only pleasure of which
an American has any idea, is to take a part in the Government, and to discuss
the part he has taken. This feeling pervades the most trifling habits of
life; even the women frequently attend public meetings, and listen to political
harangues as a recreation after their household labors. Debating clubs
are to a certain extent a substitute for theatrical entertainments: an
American cannot converse, but he can discuss; and when he attempts to talk
he falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he were addressing
a meeting; and if he should warm in the course of the discussion, he will
infallibly say, "Gentlemen," to the person with whom he is conversing. |
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In some countries the inhabitants display a certain repugnance to avail
themselves of the political privileges with which the law invests them;
it would seem that they set too high a value upon their time to spend it
on the interests of the community; and they prefer to withdraw within the
exact limits of a wholesome egotism, marked out by four sunk fences and
a quickset hedge. But if an American were condemned to confine his activity
to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence; he
would feel an immense void in the life which he is accustomed to lead,
and his wretchedness would be unbearable. I am persuaded that if ever a
despotic government is established in America, it will find it more difficult
to surmount the habits which free institutions have engendered than to
conquer the attachment of the citizens to freedom. |
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This ceaseless agitation which democratic government has introduced into
the political world, influences all social intercourse. I am not sure that
upon the whole this is not the greatest advantage of democracy; and I am
much less inclined to applaud it for what it does than for what it causes
to be done. |
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It is incontestable that the people frequently conducts public business
very ill; but it is impossible that the lower orders should take a part
in public business without extending the circle of their ideas, and without
quitting the ordinary routine of their mental acquirements. The humblest
individual who is called upon to cooperate in the government of society,
acquires a certain degree of self-respect; and as he possesses authority,
he can command the services of minds much more enlightened than his own.
He is canvassed by a multitude of applicants, who seek to deceive him in
a thousand different ways, but who instruct him by their deceit. He takes
a part in political undertakings which did not originate in his own conception,
but which give him a taste for undertakings of the kind. New meliorations
are daily pointed out in the property which he holds in common with others,
and this gives him the desire of improving that property which is more
peculiarly his own. He is perhaps neither happier nor better than those
who came before him, but he is better informed and more active. I have
no doubt that the democratic institutions of the United States, joined
to the physical constitution of the country, are the cause (not the direct,
as is so often asserted, but the indirect cause) of the prodigious commercial
activity of the inhabitants. It is not engendered by the laws, but the
people learns how to promote it by the experience derived from legislation. |
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When the opponents of democracy assert that a single individual performs
the duties which he undertakes much better than the government of the community,
it appears to me that they are perfectly right. The government of an individual,
supposing an equality of instruction on either side, is more consistent,
more persevering, and more accurate than that of a multitude, and it is
much better qualified judiciously to discriminate the characters of the
men it employs. If any deny what I advance, they have certainly never seen
a democratic government, or have formed their opinion upon very partial
evidence. It is true that even when local circumstances and the disposition
of the people allow democratic institutions to subsist, they never display
a regular and methodical system of government. Democratic liberty is far
from accomplishing all the projects it undertakes, with the skill of an
adroit despotism. It frequently abandons them before they have borne their
fruits, or risks them when the consequences may prove dangerous; but in
the end it produces more than any absolute government, and if it do fewer
things well, it does a great number of things. Under its sway, the transactions
of the public administration are not nearly so important as what is done
by private exertion. Democracy does not confer the most skillful kind of
government upon the people, but it produces that which the most skillful
governments are frequently unable to awaken, namely, an all-pervading and
restless activity, a superabundant force, and an energy which is inseparable
from it, and which may, under favorable circumstances, beget the most amazing
benefits. These are the true advantages of democracy. |
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In the present age, when the destinies of Christendom seem to be in suspense,
some hasten to assail democracy as its foe while it is yet in its early
growth; and others are ready with their vows of adoration for this new
duty which is springing forth from chaos; but both parties are very imperfectly
acquainted with the object of their hatred or of their desires; they strike
in the dark, and distribute their blows by mere chance. |
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We must first understand what the purport of society and the aim of government
are held to be. If it be your intention to confer a certain elevation upon
the human mind, and to teach it to regard the things of this world with
generous feelings; to inspire men with a scorn of mere temporal advantage;
to give birth to living convictions, and to keep alive the spirit of honorable
devotedness; if you hold it to be a good thing to refine the habits, to
embellish the manners, to cultivate the arts of a nation, and to promote
the love of poetry, of beauty, and of renown; if you would constitute a
people not unfitted to act with power upon all other nations; nor unprepared
for those high enterprises, which, whatever be the result of its efforts,
will leave a name forever famous in time - if you believe such to be the
principal object of society, you must avoid the government of democracy,
which would be a very uncertain guide to the end you have in view. |
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But if you hold it to be expedient to divert the moral and intellectual
activity of man to the production of comfort, and to the acquirement of
the necessaries of life; if a clear understanding be more profitable to
men than genius; if your object be not to stimulate the virtues of heroism,
but to create habits of peace; if you had rather behold vices than crimes,
and are content to meet with fewer noble deeds, provided offenses be diminished
in the same proportion; if, instead of living in the midst of a brilliant
state of society, you are contented to have prosperity around you; if,
in short, you are of opinion that the principal object of a government
is not to confer the greatest possible share of power and of glory upon
the body of the nation, but to insure the greatest degree of enjoyment,
and the least degree of misery, to each of the individuals who compose
it - if such be your desires, you can have no surer means of satisfying
them than by equalizing the condition of men, and establishing democratic
institutions. |
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But if the time be past at which such a choice was possible, and if some
superhuman power impel us toward one or the other of these two governments
without consulting our wishes, let us at least endeavor to make the best
of that which is allotted to us; and let us so inquire into its good and
its evil propensities as to be able to foster the former, and repress the
latter to the utmost. |
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