Democracy in America

When I heard of the attack on the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., I had immediately to think of Democracy in America, a book written by the French count and politician Alexis de Tocqueville, almost 200 years ago (published in 1835). Tocqueville wrote his book after his travels in the USA in the early 19th century. It is a praise of American democracy and an analysis of how it worked. Since it is a thick book of almost thousand pages, it is impossible for me to summarize the main ideas in a blog. Instead you’ll find here some quotes, collected from my notes in the book and from what stroke my eye, when I leafed through it, plus some comments. I’ll restrict myself to quotes from volume I which is about the political institutions (while volume II is about the influence of politics on society). 

- [I]n a State where the citizens are nearly on an equality, it becomes difficult for them to preserve their independence against the aggressions of power. No one among them being strong enough to engage in the struggle with advantage, nothing but a general combination [of the strength of all] can protect their liberty. (I-3)
To my mind, this passage from one of the first chapters of the book is very relevant to the presidential term that now comes to an end: How to stop a non-democratic president that follows the democratic rules but actually does not follow them and who has a big group of supporters who also follow the rules but actually do not and who are often on the brink of violence and sometimes really use it?

- On CNN, Fox News and the press in general and on Facebook, Twitter and other social media: 
[I]n the countries in which the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people ostensibly prevails, the censorship of the press is not only dangerous, but it is absurd. … The sovereignty of the people and the liberty of the press [are] correlative institutions; just as the censorship of the press and universal suffrage are two things which are irreconcilably opposed … [The press] constitutes a singular power, so strangely composed of mingled good and evil that it is at the same time indispensable to the existence of freedom, and nearly incompatible with the maintenance of public order. … It is an enemy with which a Government may sign an occasional truce, but which it is difficult to resist for any length of time. (I-11) See also my comment on the first quote.

- On Trump and his supporters (but not only):
[I]n the first instance, a society [= party] is formed between individuals professing the same opinion, and the tie which keeps it together is of a purely intellectual nature;[then] small assemblies are formed which only represent a fraction of the party. Lastly,… they constitute a separate nation in the midst of the nation, a government within the Government. Their delegates, like the real delegates of the majority, represent the entire collective force of their party; and they enjoy a certain degree of that national dignity and great influence which belong to the chosen representatives of the people.
That’s how democracy works, indeed. However, this can also work against democracy, as we have seen during the past four years, which Tocqueville implicitly admits: It must be acknowledged that the unrestrained liberty of political association has not hitherto produced, in the United States [till 1835], those fatal consequences which might perhaps be expected from it elsewhere. … At the present time the liberty of association is become a necessary guarantee against the tyranny of the majority. (I-12) But during the Trump years it failed, as said (compare again also the first quote).

- [A]t the present day the most able men in the United States are very rarely placed at the head of affairs … [affairs=public office, as my home edition of the book says] (I-13)

- Nothing is so irresistible as a tyrannical power commanding in the name of the people, because, whilst it exercises that moral influence which belongs to the decision of the majority, it acts at the same time with the promptitude and the tenacity of a single man. (I-13)

- I am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country as at the very inadequate securities which exist against tyranny. (I-15)

- On social and moral pressure: [T]he majority possesses a power which is physical and moral at the same time; it acts upon the will as well as upon the actions of men, and it represses not only all contest, but all controversy. I know no country in which there is so little true independence of mind and freedom of discussion as in America. (I-15)

- The majority is principally composed of peaceful citizens who, either by inclination or by interest, are sincerely desirous of the welfare of their country. But they are surrounded by the incessant agitation of parties, which attempt to gain their co-operation and to avail themselves of their support. (I-9) 

In selecting these quotes, I could neither do justice to Tocqueville’s book nor to the USA and democracy in America. The selection is quite arbitrary and I have chosen the quotations in view of the present crisis in the country. Seen thus I think that the quotes tell us a lot about the state of the union. 

Note on the source
There are many editions of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, in many languages. For this blog I used the internet version in English on the Gutenberg website:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/815/815-h/815-h.htm (Volume I)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/816/816-h/816-h.htm (Volume II)
Way of quoting: Volume-Chapter. So I-3 means vol I, ch. 3.