“Amongst the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of conditions. I readily discovered the prodigious influence which this primary fact exercises on the whole course of society … I speedily perceived that the influence of this fact extends far beyond the political character and the laws of the country, and that it has no less empire over civil society than over the Government; it creates opinions, engenders sentiments, suggests the ordinary practices of life, and modifies whatever it does not produce. The more I advanced in the study of American society, the more I perceived that the equality of conditions is the fundamental fact from which all others seem to be derived, and the central point at which all my observations constantly terminated.”
– Opening lines of Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” (1835), Book 1, Introductory Chapter
I recently finished reading this work in its original French …
I recently finished reading Alexis de Tocqueville’s “De la démocratie en Amérique” (“Democracy in America”) in the original French. The work took me over three years to finish. Specifically, I read the work from March 2019 to July 2022. I would first read a paragraph out loud in French, then out loud in English, and then out loud in French again before moving on to the next paragraph. In this way, I got through the entire work one paragraph at a time. After doing so, I have much to say about it – some of it positive, and some of it negative. But first, let me give some comments on how (and why) the book was written, and how it was informed by Tocqueville’s travels to the United States.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Background on Tocqueville’s travels to the United States
In 1831, Tocqueville visited the United States for a nine-month period. He was there on official business for the French government, being sent to study the American prisons and other penal institutions. Tocqueville was then only 26 years old, and his companion Gustave de Beaumont was also in his twenties (although his exact birthday is unknown). They may have been sent there to study American penal institutions, but they also made a close study of other American institutions while they were at it. Specifically, they were most interested in our political and social institutions, of which the prisons were just one part. Tocqueville and Beaumont had entertained the idea of collaborating on a great book about America, but Beaumont soon lost interest in this great project. Beaumont would instead write a novel about slavery in America, in which he painted slavery in a negative light – as Tocqueville would later do in “Democracy in America.” It was Tocqueville who would write a great non-fiction work about America. This was “Democracy in America,” whose first part was published in 1835, after Tocqueville had returned to France. A second part would later follow in 1840, which was also written after Tocqueville was back in his native France.
Gustave de Beaumont, a friend of Tocqueville who traveled with him in America
How different was Tocqueville’s France from the America that he visited?
Why is this book still considered important today? I believe that it’s because this work is the greatest foreign commentary ever written about the United States. It is written by an outsider, who was less inclined to take certain things for granted. For example, Tocqueville was born into an aristocratic family in France. Many members of his family had been executed during the French Revolution, because the revolutionaries didn’t care much for “high-borne” aristocrats. Those in his family that survived had often embraced Revolutionary ideas, to show their solidarity with the movement. To some degree, they really did like the new ideas of democracy and liberty, even though they were aristocrats who were proud of their ancient heritage. The French Revolution had been greatly influenced by the American Revolution, since people like the Marquis de Lafayette had fought in America during that war. After the war, they would bring the ideals of democracy and liberty back home to France with them. This was the beginning of France’s strong admiration for American culture – an admiration that influenced people like Alexis de Tocqueville.
Marquis de Lafayette, another French admirer of America
Tocqueville believed that America generally possessed more “equality of condition”
I suppose that this may be why Tocqueville wanted to visit America in the first place. But whatever his reasons for coming here, he was clearly struck by the differences between American culture and his native French culture. For example, he believed that America had a strong amount of “equality of condition” – as I show in the opening quotation for this post. This may seem ironic, since most modern believers in “equality of condition” condemn the United States for “lacking” such equality. But compared to the aristocratic culture of his native France, America seemed to have a high amount of “equality of condition” at that time. I don’t consider “equality of condition” to be that great of a goal to begin with. But it is interesting that Tocqueville believed America to be relatively successful in this economic area. However, Tocqueville acknowledged the inequalities that were inherent in the institution of chattel slavery (which was still going on at that time), and believed that this was an exception to the rule. He also condemned the way that Native Americans had been treated in the United States, in episodes like the Trail of Tears. By a curious coincidence, Tocqueville was actually an eyewitness to certain parts of the Trail of Tears, since he was visiting America at the time that it happened. (But that’s a subject for another post.)
The Trail of Tears, to which Alexis de Tocqueville was a horrified eyewitness
Enlightened self-interest, and Tocqueville’s general lack of interest in economics
But let me return for a moment to economic topics, and Tocqueville’s acquaintance with them. Interestingly, Tocqueville had done some minimal reading of the classical economists of his time, such as the French economist Jean-Baptiste Say. He also maintained a fairly long friendship with the English economist Nassau William Senior. But Tocqueville seems not to have been very interested in economics in general. Thus, “Democracy in America” contains relatively little discussion of this important subject, beyond some occasional references to Americans’ “enlightened self-interest” – and the aforementioned comments about “equality of condition.” The doctrine of “enlightened self-interest” bears a strong resemblance to Adam Smith’s doctrine of the “invisible hand.” But Tocqueville seems to have had some reservations about this doctrine, something that distinguishes him from people like Adam Smith. Tocqueville acknowledged that allowing people to follow their own self-interest often had positive economic results. But he had reservations about the entire goal of pursuing wealth, despite the fact that “Democracy in America” would make him a decent fortune, and despite the fact that he had been born into an aristocratic family in France.
The British economist Nassau William Senior, who was Tocqueville’s longtime friend
Tocqueville closely studied the United States Constitution and the Federalist Papers …
Tocqueville had done some extensive reading about the United States Constitution. This included a close study of the document itself, but it also involved an enthusiastic study of the Federalist Papers. In the Federalist Papers, some of America’s Founding Fathers had helped to explain this document to the American people, at a time when it had not yet been ratified. One of the authors of these “Federalist Papers” was James Madison, the Father of the Constitution himself. As America’s 4th President, Madison had appointed a new justice to the United States Supreme Court. That justice was Joseph Story, and Mr. Story would later write his own “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States.” Tocqueville discusses the American Constitution, and quotes therein from this classic work by Joseph Story – as well as from the earlier Federalist Papers, and the text of the Constitution itself.
James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, and author of many of the Federalist Papers
… but still may not have appreciated their importance
But for all of this, Tocqueville seems not to have fully appreciated the significance of the American Constitution. Tocqueville acknowledged that it was important, because he knew that it was the “supreme law of the land” in the United States. This, indeed, is the most prominent feature of the document itself – and he admires the philosophy behind it. But Tocqueville may not have realized how vitally important the Constitution was (and is) to the American success story. This seems to be one of the most glaring omissions of “Democracy in America,” and one of the few disadvantages to its having been written by an outsider. For me, the fact that “Democracy in America” was written by an outsider is almost always a great strength, but it also meant that Tocqueville occasionally missed some things that would be obvious to those who were born here, and who have spent their lives in this country.
Alexis de Tocqueville himself
Nonetheless, Tocqueville offers us a remarkable character study of the American people
But Tocqueville nonetheless gave us a remarkable character study of the American people in his classic nineteenth-century work. In particular, he admired the role of religion in American life, and the country’s constitutional protections for freedom of religion. He also admired the American support for freedom of the press, and praised it a number of times in this work. In all, “Democracy in America” is an impressive work. It is all the more impressive, given that its author had spent only nine months in the United States, and was still in his thirties when the last volume of this great work was published. This book seems to be more notable for what it got right, than for what it got wrong. His book is not quite as good as the Federalist Papers, or “De l’esprit des lois” (“The Spirit of Laws”) – written by Tocqueville’s hero, the Baron de Montesquieu. But it was right far more often than the works of Karl Marx, or those of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Tocqueville was influenced by Rousseau, and that is a blight upon his name. But despite his Rousseauian influence, Tocqueville still deserves a place in the pantheon of great political philosophers, and goes far beyond his Rousseauian roots in certain parts of this book. Even if you don’t always agree with Tocqueville (and I don’t always agree with him), Tocqueville’s works are still worth studying today. I wish that certain American critics of the United States would take the time to read “Democracy in America” in detail, and realize how blessed Americans really are.
“There are, at the present time, two great nations in the world which seem to tend towards the same end, although they started from different points: I allude to the Russians and the Americans. Both of them have grown up unnoticed; and whilst the attention of mankind was directed elsewhere, they have suddenly assumed a most prominent place amongst the nations; and the world learned their existence and their greatness at almost the same time.”
“Their starting-point is different, and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems to be marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe.”
– Closing two paragraphs of the 1835 portions of Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America,” Book 1, Conclusion
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