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Alexis De Tocqueville Chronicler of the American Democratic Experiment

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Alexis De Tocqueville Chronicler of the American Democratic Experiment Economic Insights FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS VOLUME 5, NUMBER 1 Alexis de Tocqueville Chronicler of the American Democratic Experiment The Early Years bring Tocqueville fame and honors. In Born in Paris in 1805, Alexis- 1833, about a year after Tocqueville We are pleased to add this piece on Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville returned to France, the report on Alexis de Tocqueville to our series of profiles entered the world in the early and most American prisons, The U.S. Penitentiary powerful days of Napoleon’s empire. System and Its Application in France, that began with Frédéric Bastiat and Friedrich His parents were of the nobility and was published. von Hayek. Both Bastiat and Hayek were had taken the historical family name of Things in France changed for Beau- strong and influential proponents of indi- Tocqueville, which dated from the mont and Tocqueville upon their return early 17th century and was a region after 10 months in America. Both men vidual liberty and free enterprise. While they of France known previously as the left the judiciary. Beaumont was offi- approached those topics from a theoretical Leverrier fief. cially let go, and Tocqueville resigned perspective, Tocqueville’s views on early Tocqueville’s father supported the in sympathetic protest. Tocqueville then French monarchy and played no seri- had ample time to work on his master- American and French democracy were based ous role in public affairs until after piece, Democracy in America. Volume 1 on his keen personal observations and his- Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo, was published in 1835. The English torical analysis. Although Tocqueville was which followed the restoration of the translation appeared later that same year monarchy under the Bourbon king Louis to wide European and American acclaim. Bastiat’s contemporary, even serving with him XVIII in 1814. The elder Tocqueville The more philosophical Volume 2 was in the French Chamber of Deputies during the then served as prefect successively at published in 1840. great turmoil in post-revolutionary France, Metz, Amiens and Versailles. Alexis fol- From its first appearance, this work lowed his father in civil employment has been considered a masterpiece of he is best known for his travels in the United when, at the age of 21, he was observation, speculation, historical States, where he observed and studied appointed magistrate at Versailles. Alexis writing and sound political theorizing. American democracy in action in the 1830s. had studied rhetoric and philosophy in Its author was elevated to the League of secondary school and at the College Honor, the Academy of Moral and The result was his two-volume classic, Royale before studying law for three Democracy in America. years in Paris. We hope this brief biography of the It was at Versailles that Alexis met Gustave de Beaumont, a deputy pub- Is a Democracy Immune man who painted a vivid portrait of the lic prosecutor, who became both his from the Despotic Impulse? American people helps students and others lifelong friend and his traveling com- panion to America. Ostensibly, their I believe that it is easier to establish an better understand the unique character of absolute and despotic government among a trip through America was a leave for our democracy and freedom. For a fuller people in which the conditions of society are the two men to study the prison sys- equal than among any other; and I think that if treatment, look up a new book, Tocqueville on tem in the eastern United States. But such a government were once established among such a people, it not only would oppress American Character, by Michael A. Ledeen of according to Beaumont, behind that pretext lay an interest in and a desire men, but would eventually strip each of them of the American Enterprise Institute, published several of the highest qualities of humanity. to study American democracy more Despotism, therefore, appears to me peculiarly by Truman Talley Books. generally. to be dreaded in democratic times. And so, Tocqueville and Beaumont I should have loved freedom, I believe, at — Bob McTeer landed in New York on May 10, 1831, all times, but in the time in which we live, I am President ready to worship it. I Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and began what became one of his- tory’s most famous journeys. The result —From Democracy in America, Vol. 2, 322 was two books, both of which would tine by the narrowest of margins.) He An Early Advocate of ‘Welfare Reform’ sat on the committee that drafted the There are two kinds of welfare. One leads ity of men can be sufficiently motivated to work new French constitution, but his opin- each individual according to his means, to alleviate only by the first of these incentives. The second is ions in support of both separation of the evils he sees around him. This type is as old effective only with a small minority. Well, the char- powers and bicameralism were rejected as the world; it began with human misfortune. itable institution indiscriminately open to all those by the whole assembly. Tocqueville’s Christianity made a divine virtue of it and called it in need, or a law that gives all the poor a right to effectiveness in the legislature was charity. The other, less instructive, more reasoned, public aid, whatever the origin of their poverty, greatly hampered by his inability to less emotional, and often more powerful, leads weakens or destroys the first stimulant and leaves compromise. society to concern itself with the misfortunes of its only the second intact. The English peasant, like the members and is ready systematically to alleviate Spanish peasant, if he does not feel the deep desire Having completed the new consti- their sufferings. This type is born of Protestantism to better the position into which he has been born, tution by the end of 1848, France then and has developed only in modern societies. The and to raise himself out of his misery (a feeble elected its first independent president, first type is a private virtue; it escapes social action; desire which is easily crushed in the majority of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of the second, on the contrary, is produced and regu- men)—the peasant of both countries, I maintain, Napoleon I. Tocqueville distrusted lated by society. It is therefore with the second that has no interest in working, or, if he works, has no Louis Napoleon, and his misgivings we must be especially concerned. interest in saving. He therefore remains idle or were shortly borne out. At first glance, there is no idea that seems thoughtlessly squanders the fruits of his labors. more beautiful and grander than that of public char- Both these countries, by different causal patterns, Tocqueville became a member of ity. Society is continually examining itself, probing arrive at the same result: the most generous, the the new National Assembly in 1849 and its wounds, and undertaking to cure them. At the most active, the most industrious part of the nation the new government’s emissary to same time that it assures the rich the enjoyment of devotes its resources to furnishing the means of Germany. He was named foreign min- their wealth, society guarantees the poor against existence for those who do nothing or who make ister as Louis Napoleon sought, without excessive misery. It asks some to give of their sur- bad use of their labor….Is it possible to escape the subtlety, to secure Tocqueville’s sup- plus in order to allow others the basic necessities. fatal consequences of a good principle? For myself port. But when Louis dissolved the This is certainly a moving and elevating sight…. I consider them inevitable….Any measure that Almost two and a half centuries have passed since establishes legal charity on a permanent basis and National Assembly in 1851 because the principle of legal charity was fully embraced by gives it an administrative form thereby creates an under the constitution he could not our neighbors [England], and one may now judge idle and lazy class, living at the expense of the be re-elected, Tocqueville withdrew his the fatal consequences that flowed from the adop- industrial and working class. This, at least, is its guarded support. Louis staged a mili- tion of this principle….Since the poor have an inevitable consequence if not the immediate result. tary coup. For his vocal opposition to absolute right to the help of society, and have a It reproduced all the vices of the monastic system, this act of political usurpation, Tocque- public administration organized to provide it every- minus the high ideals of morality and religion that ville was imprisoned overnight. He where, one can observe in a Protestant country often went along with it. Such a law is a bad seed the immediate rebirth and generalization of all the planted in the legal structure. Circumstances, as in wrote an account of his ordeal and a abuses with which its reformers rightly reproached America, can prevent the seed from developing strong criticism of Louis Napoleon’s some Catholic countries. Man, like all socially orga- rapidly, but they cannot destroy it, and if the pre- tactics that was smuggled out of France nized beings, has a natural passion for idleness. sent generation escapes its influence, it will devour and published in Britain’s London Times. There are, however, two incentives to work: the the well-being of generations to come. I In general, Tocqueville was more effec- need to live and the desire to improve the condi- tive as an observer–writer than as a tions of life.
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