What’s in a Parade? Tocqueville’s America at 250

French historian Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1831 observations of American democracy now stand in stark contrast to modern America. His warnings about materialism and aristocracy resonate as corporate influence, legal rollbacks and political extremism erode the principles of self-government. Today’s crisis suggests Tocqueville’s vision of democracy is at its most fragile point in history.

By Glenn Carle

French historian Alexis de Tocqueville, the man who understood the bases of American democracy better than any man in history, spent July 4, 1831 — America’s Independence Day — in Albany, New York, amused, slightly condescending — and profoundly moved. He marched with a mixture of citizen militias and trade associations in a solemn parade through town to, of all incongruous places to celebrate the secular nation’s independence, a church.

He found the formal speech commemorating the day, delivered by a local lawyer, a banal series of “rhetorical commonplaces.” But the crowds’ palpable dedication to the principles of individual freedom, and the reading of the Declaration of Independence, stunned him. “It was as though an electric current moved through the hearts of everyone there. It was in no way a theatrical performance. In this reading of the promises of independence … there was something profoundly felt and truly great.”

Today, as America nears its 250th anniversary, 69% of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction of the country, 59% believe “America’s best years are behind us,” and 57% fear that the country is on the path to civil war.

The four pillars of Tocqueville’s democracy

For Tocqueville, four distinct elements of American history and society explained how America became the world’s exemplary democracy. First, the founding Americans were fortunate, for they created a society without the constraints of a feudal past or an entrenched aristocracy, with almost no barriers from birth on any individual, in an almost infinite and “empty” land. As the Declaration of Independence put it, “All men are created equal.”

Second, American society was founded and shaped by the unique social mores of the founding New England Puritan settlers. The specific Puritan mix of cultural unity and religion, far from any higher authority, created a layered, robust self-government.

Third, crucially, the Puritans possessed or developed, in their isolated yet largely equal circumstances, what Tocqueville called “enlightened self-interest.” This is the natural pursuit of one’s self-interest, while exercising enough self-restraint for one’s actions to contribute to broader social benefit. 

Fourth, America’s laws and famous separation of powers, especially its powerful local governments, are intentionally designed to disperse power, protect individual liberties and protect Americans from tyranny.

Tocqueville’s warnings: the erosion of democracy

But Tocqueville also apprehended how America would evolve. He saw that America defined success strictly through material gain, and he foresaw that an “aristocracy” of wealth would undermine the foundations of America’s equality and democracy. In 2010, the US Supreme Court, in Citizens United, found that the government could not regulate how much money an individual spent on politics. Today, America’s wealthiest 1% holds over 30% of the nation’s wealth; its bottom 50% hold… 2.5%.

Many Americans, however, now perceive Tocqueville’s enlightened self-interest, the strengths of local government and even democracy itself as inefficient, failed or lost. Tocqueville would find that individualism has, as he anticipated, deteriorated into selfishness, that individuals now feel they and society lack purpose, and that community has splintered into communitarian squabbling. Nearly 40% of Americans are now open to authoritarian leadership, agreeing that the nation needs a leader willing to “break some rules” to set things right.

The unitary executive: a threat to self-government

In recent decades, the Republican Party embraced the “theory of the unitary executive,” a system that seeks to concentrate all executive power in the White House. As Tocqueville feared, as wealth has concentrated into an aristocracy and enlightened self-interest has become egalitarian, morally empty materialism, some American elites are now driving the government towards autocracy.