Democracy in action essential to our lives

Alexis de Tocqueville

Editor’s note: Today is election day, and in encouraging you to

participate in this exercise of your democratic privileges, we are

inspired by the words of Alexis de Tocqueville, who in Chapter 14 of

Volume I of the celebrated 1835 book “Democracy in America,” asked

“What are the advantages which American society derives from a

democratic government?”

On passing from a free country into one which is not free, the

traveler is struck by the change; in the former all is bustle and

activity; in the latter everything seems calm and motionless. In the

one, amelioration and progress are the topics of inquiry; in the

other, it seems as if the community wished only to repose in the

enjoyment of advantages already acquired.

Nevertheless, the country which exerts itself so strenuously to

become happy is generally more wealthy and prosperous than that which

appears so contented with its lot, and when we compare them, we can

scarcely conceive how so many new wants are daily felt in the former,

while so few seem to exist in the latter.

If this remark is applicable to those free countries which have

preserved monarchical forms and aristocratic institutions, it is

still more so to democratic republics. In these states it is not a

portion only of the people who endeavor to improve the state of

society, but the whole community is engaged in the task; and it is

not the exigencies and convenience of a single class for which

provision is to be made, but the exigencies and convenience of all

classes at once.

It is not impossible to conceive the surprising liberty that the

Americans enjoy; some idea may likewise be formed of their extreme

equality; but the political activity that pervades the United States

must be seen in order to be understood. No sooner do you set foot

upon American ground than you are stunned by a kind of tumult; a

confused clamor is heard on every side, and a thousand simultaneous

voices demand the 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 hastening to the town in order to consult upon some

local improvements; in another place, the laborers of a village quit

their plows to deliberate upon the project of a road or a public

school. ...

In some countries the inhabitants seem unwilling to avail

themselves of the political privileges which the law gives 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 shut themselves up in a

narrow selfishness, 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. ...

It is incontestable that the people frequently conduct public

business very badly, but it is impossible that the lower orders

should take a part in public business without extending the circle of

their ideas and quitting the ordinary routine of their thoughts. The

humblest individual who co-operates in the government of society

acquires a certain degree of self-respect; and as he possesses

authority, he can command the services of minds more enlightened than

his own.

He is canvassed by a multitude of applicants, and in seeking to

deceive him in a thousand ways, they really enlighten him. He takes a

part in political undertakings which he did not originate, but which

give him a taste for undertakings of the kind. New improvements are

daily pointed out to him in the common property, and this gives him

the desire of improving that property which is his own. He is perhaps

neither happier nor better than those who came before him, but he is

better informed and more active.

... It is true that, even when local circumstances and the

dispositions of the people allow democratic institutions to exist,

they do not display a regular and methodical system of government.

Democratic liberty is far from accomplishing all its projects with

the skill of an adroit despotism. It frequently abandons them before

they have borne their fruits, or risks them when the consequences may

be dangerous; but in the end it produces more than any absolute

government; if it does fewer things well, it does a greater number of

things.

Under its sway the grandeur is not in what the public

administration does, but in what is done without it or outside of it.

Democracy does not give the people the most skillful government, but

it produces what the ablest governments are frequently unable to

create: namely, an all-pervading and restless activity, a

superabundant force, and an energy which is inseparable from it and

which may, however unfavorable circumstances may be, produce wonders.

These are the true advantages of democracy.

* ALEXIS de TOCQUEVILLE was born on July 29, 1805, in France. He

came to America in 1831, and stayed for nine months. While here, he

visited prisons and interviewed many Americans on the values of

social equality. He served in the French legislature, wrote several

books besides “Democracy in America,” and was considered a foremost

philosopher for the better part of his life and for many generations

afterward. De Tocqueville died on April 16, 1859.