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Tocqueville
on Democracy
by Gary
M. Galles [author,
academic] 7/30/06 |
Saturday
[July 29] marked the birth of Alexis de Tocqueville. His Democracy
in America has been called “one of the wisest works of
modern thought,” that for understanding and preserving
liberty, “the intelligent American reader can find no
better guide.” Herbert Muller called it “more comprehensive
and more penetrating than any contemporary studies.”
Contributor
Gary M. Galles
Mr.
Galles is a professor of economics at Pepperdine
University. [go to Galles index]
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However,
too little attention has been given Tocqueville’s
warnings about the dangers democracy held for what he called
his passions--“liberty and human dignity.” Therefore,
reconsidering his insight in this area is a fitting memorial.
“…everyone is the best and sole judge of his own
private interest…society has no right to control a man’s
actions unless they are prejudicial to the common weal…”
“…the Federal Constitution…disavowed
beforehand the habitual use of compulsion in enforcing the
decisions of
the majority.”
“The natural
evil of democracy is that it gradually subordinates all authority
to the slightest desires of the majority.”
“…the
government of the democracy is the only one under which the
power that votes the taxes escapes the payment
of them.”
“When…the people are invested with the supreme authority…they
discover a multitude of wants that they had not before been conscious
of, and to satisfy these exigencies recourse must be had to the
coffers of the state.”
“…the main evil of the present democratic institutions
of the Unites States…[arises] from their irresistible strength.
I am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns
in that country as at the inadequate securities which one finds
there against tyranny.”
“… in the United States the majority…frequently
displays the tastes and propensities of a despot…”
“[Under] the absolute power of a majority…[men]
would simply have discovered a new physiognomy of servitude.”
“Give democratic nations education and freedom and leave
them alone. The will soon learn to draw from this world all the
benefit that it can afford…”
“…the democratic tendency…leads men unceasingly
to multiply the privileges of the state and to circumscribe the
rights of private persons…the supreme power then extends
its arm over the whole community…till each nation is reduced
to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals,
of which the government is the shepherd.”
“Another tendency which is extremely natural to democratic
nations and extremely dangerous is that which leads them to despise
and undervalue the rights of private persons…often sacrificed
without regret and almost always violated without remorse…men
become less and less attached to private rights just when it
is most necessary to retain and defend what little remains of
them. It is therefore most especially in the present democratic
times, that the true friends of liberty and the greatness of
man ought constantly to be on the alert to prevent the power
of government from lightly sacrificing the private rights of
individuals to the general execution of its designs. At such
times no citizen is so obscure that it is not very dangerous
to allow him to be oppressed; no private rights are so unimportant
that they can be surrendered with impunity to the caprices of
a government…men accustom themselves to sacrifice private
interest without scruple and to trample on the rights of individuals
in order more speedily to accomplish any public purpose.”
Alexis de
Tocqueville saw that abandoning liberties to democracy “makes
every eye turn to the State,” and that our constitutional
constraints preventing democratic abuses were essential components
of America’s greatness. That is why his central question--when
is a majority vote the sole requirement necessary to justify ”extorted
obedience” from fellow citizens?--is just as important
to America today as when he wrote.
“Despotism, therefore, appears to me peculiarly to be
dreaded in democratic times. I should have loved freedom, I believe,
at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to
worship it…the question is…how to make liberty proceed
out of that democratic state of society in which God has placed
us.” CRO
copyright
2006 Gary M. Galles
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