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Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift: What Tocqueville Teaches Today

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Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift: What Tocqueville Teaches Today No. 28 Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: What Tocqueville Teaches Today A Conversation Paul Rahe, James Ceaser, and Thomas West Editor’s Note: The following exchange is adapted from a public conversation among Paul Rahe (Hillsdale College), James Ceaser (University of Virginia), and Thomas West (University of Dallas) that took place at The Heritage Foundation on April 16, 2009, the date of release for Paul Rahe’s book Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift, and the 150th anniversary of the death of Alexis de Tocqueville. PAUL RAHE: Conservatism in America is now at a as became evident almost immediately after Newt nadir, but there is some hope that it might recover. What Gingrich resigned his post as Speaker of the House, would happen if it were to do so? In particular, what the Republicans will wander more or less aimlessly. would happen if the Republicans were to make a dra- Before we contemplate the future, however, we must matic comeback as they did in 1938, 1966, and 1994? confront an exceedingly unpleasant fact. For nearly a As the Obama Administration founders, and as the century now, the friends of liberty, local autonomy, and President’s negatives rise slowly but, I think, inexo- civic agency have been in retreat, and the administra- rably, as the Republicans ride higher in the polls and tive state has grown by leaps and bounds. Democratic Senators from toss-up states begin to dis- The ideological foundation for this development play anxiety, such a scenario seems conceivable. Thus was laid during the presidential campaign of 1912, far, the Republicans have been tactically adept, and we when both Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt can foresee the possibility (but maybe not the prob- attacked the Constitution and William Howard Taft, ability) that they will stick to their guns and refuse to its only defender, came in a dismal third. The institu- become what they were before 1980: tax collectors for tional foundation was put in place one year later with the welfare state. ratification of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amend- Opposition is, however, the easy part. There is no ments to the Constitution, which legalized the federal sign that anyone in the GOP has given any serious income tax and provided for the direct election of Unit- thought to developing a coherent program for gov- ed States Senators, putting the federal government in ernance. In the absence of such a strategy and plan, a position to secure for itself unlimited funding and Published by 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002-4999 (202) 546-4400 • heritage.org The Heritage Foundation’s First Principles Series explores the fundamental ideas of conservatism and the American political tradition. For more information call 1-800-544-4843 or visit heritage.org/bookstore. Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill before Congress. 2 No. 28 denying to the state legislatures, which had once cho- We may still take pride in being a self-governing peo- sen the Senators, the capacity to defend state and local ple, but to an ever-increasing degree, that pretense is governments against federal encroachment. unsustainable. Since that time, since 1913, without a respite, the conservatives have been giving ground, sometimes THE TOCQUEVILLEAN CURE slowly, sometimes rapidly, and the advocates of cen- FOR THE FrENCH DISEasE tralized administration have gradually extended their If we are ever to put a stop to the advance of the tentacles into nearly every corner of American public administrative state or even roll it back, if we are ever and private life. to recover the liberty that once was ours and reassert Moreover, since 1928, the only real difference our dignity as citizens rather than as clients and as between Republicans and Democrats has been the subjects, we must first come to understand what it pace. Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard is that has occasioned central administrations’ seem- Nixon, George Herbert Walker Bush, and George W. ingly inexorable march. Here, I would argue, Alexis Bush may not have been as enthusiastic about extend- de Tocqueville, who died 150 years ago today, on 16 ing federal powers as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lyn- April 1859, is our best guide, for what he feared with don Baines Johnson, and Barack Obama, but they were regard to his native France is increasingly true for the nonetheless quite assiduous. Even under Ronald Rea- United States. gan, the only recent President who made a concerted We have contracted the “French disease.” To an attempt to limit the growth of the federal government, ever-increasing degree, our compatriots are subject to the federal government extended its reach. what Tocqueville described as “an immense tutelary Of course, the localities and the states still exist. power which takes sole charge of assuring their enjoy- Elections take place. There are school boards, and ment and of watching over their fate.”1 As he predict- there are town, city, county, and state governments; ed, this power is “absolute, attentive to detail, regular, and they still matter—even if, on a growing and provident and gentle,” and it “works willingly for their great variety of subjects, they take their orders from happiness, it provides for their security, foresees and a national government that offers them vast sums of supplies their needs, guides them in their principal funding in return for strict compliance with its every affairs, directs their industry, regulates their testa- whim. Our polity is a hodge-podge, but with every ments, divides their inheritances.” It is entirely proper passing year the burden of federal regulation becomes to ask whether it can “relieve them entirely of the trou- more intolerable, and the number of mandates grows ble of thinking and of the effort associated with living,” with increasing rapidity. Moreover, nearly all of the for such is evidently its aim. regulations imposed are devised by unelected civil Moreover, “after having taken each individual in servants and political appointees to whom Congress— this fashion by turns, into its powerful hands, and undeniably in breach of the Constitution’s separation after having kneaded him in accord with his desires”: of powers—has delegated legislative, executive, and judicial responsibilities. [The sovereign] extends its arms about society Next to nothing with regard to these is examined as a whole. It covers its surface with a network and voted on by elected officials who can be held of petty regulations—complicated, minute, and responsible by the voting public for the consequences uniform—through which even the most origi- of what has been done. Moreover, what remains unde- nal minds and the most vigorous souls know cided within the administrative agencies is generally dealt with in courts, unresponsive to the electorate. 1 Here and elsewhere, the translation is my own. No. 28 3 not how to make their way past the crowd and be possible for it to be established in the very shadow emerge into the light of day. It does not break of the sovereignty of the people.” wills; it softens them, bends them and directs In this fashion—with the institution of a “unitary, them. Rarely does it force one to act but it con- tutelary, all-powerful” government “elected by the stantly opposes itself to one’s acting on one’s own. citizens” at regular intervals—one might actually sat- It does not destroy, it prevents things from being isfy the two contradictory impulses found among his born, it extinguishes, it stupefies and finally, it contemporaries: the felt “need for guidance and the will reduce each nation to nothing more than a longing to remain free.” What this would involve, Toc- herd of timid, and industrious animals of which queville explains, is a “species of compromise between the government is the shepherd. administrative despotism and the sovereignty of the people,” a corrupt bargain between the ghost of Jean- As I said, when Tocqueville wrote these words, he Jacques Rousseau and that of his erstwhile admirer did not have our country in mind. He was worried— Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot in which the political and rightly so—about his native France. Where other doctrine of Rousseau was deployed rhetorically for luminaries, such as François Guizot, looked optimis- the purpose of legitimizing a law-abiding, steady, reli- tically to the rule of a technocratic elite armed with able despotism on the Chinese model—a model of the authority conferred by a liberal, quasi-democratic sort that was espoused, in full knowledge of what they regime, Tocqueville anticipated something much more were embracing, by Turgot’s mentors among the Phys- ominous: the establishment of a “social body” that iocrats in France. would be intent on exercising foresight with regard Under such an arrangement, Tocqueville remarked, to everything. It would act as a “second providence,” “the citizens emerge for a brief moment from depen- nourishing men from birth and protecting them from dence for the purpose of indicating their masters, and “perils,” and it would function as a “tutelary power” then re-enter,” without further ado, “their former state” capable of rendering men “gentle” and sociable in such of dependence. “They console themselves for being in a manner that crimes would become rare, and virtues tutelage, with the thought that they had chosen the as well. tutors themselves,” and “they think that they have suf- When under the rule of this “tutelary power,” he ficiently guaranteed the liberty of the individual when foresaw that the human soul would enter into a “long they have delivered to the national power.” repose.” In the process, “individual energy” would be This is the fear that brought Tocqueville to North “almost extinguished,” and when action was required, America: that the great democratic revolution sweep- men would “rely on others.” In effect, a peculiar brand ing the globe would eventuate not in liberty, but in a of what Tocqueville called “egoism” initially, and soft, gentle despotism wholly welcome to those who “individualism” later, would reign, for everyone would would be subject to it.
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