Democracy in America

by de Tocqueville, Alexis

• ISBN13: 9780226805368
• ISBN10: 0226805360
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

The complete edition based on the revised and corrected text of the 1961 French edition Originally penned in the mid-eighteenth century by Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America remains the most penetrating and astute picture of American life, politics, and morals ever written, as relevant today as when it first appeared in print nearly two hundred years ago. This edition, meticulously edited by the distinguished de Tocqueville scholar J. P. Mayer, is widely recognized as the preeminent translation.

Author Biography

Harvey C. Mansfield is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University. Political philosopher and author, he is acknowledged as a leading translator of Machiavelli.

Delba Winthrop is a Lecturer in Extension and administrator of the Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard University. Her articles and essays have appeared in numerous publications.

Table of Contents

Editors' Introduction	xvii
Suggested Readings	lxxxvii
A Note on the Translation	xci
Introduction	3	(16)
PART ONE
External Configuration of North America	19	(8)
On the Point of Departure and Its Importance for the Future of the Anglo-Americans	27	(18)
Reasons for Some Singularities That the Laws and Customs of the Anglo-Americans Present	44	(1)
Social State of the Anglo-Americans	45	(8)
That the Salient Point of the Social State of the Anglo-Americans Is Its Being Essentially Democratic	46	(6)
Political Consequences of the Social State of the Anglo-Americans	52	(1)
On the Principle of the Sovereignty of the People in America	53	(3)
Necessity of Studying What Takes Place in the Particular States before Speaking of the Government of the Union	56	(37)
On the Township System in America	57	(1)
Size of the Township	58	(1)
Powers of the Township in New England	58	(3)
On Township Existence	61	(2)
On the Spirit of the Township in New England	63	(2)
On the Country in New England	65	(1)
On Administration in New England	66	(9)
General Ideas about Administration in the United States	75	(4)
On the State	79	(1)
Legislative Power of the State	80	(1)
On the Executive Power of the State	81	(1)
On the Political Effects of Administrative Decentralization in the United States	82	(11)
On Judicial Power in the United States and Its Action on Political Society	93	(7)
Other Powers Granted to American Judges	98	(2)
On Political Judgment in the United States	100	(5)
On the Federal Constitution	105	(60)
History of the Federal Constitution	105	(2)
Summary Picture of the Federal Constitution	107	(1)
Prerogatives of the Federal Government	108	(2)
Federal Powers	110	(1)
Legislative Powers	110	(3)
Another Difference between the Senate and the House of Representatives	113	(1)
On the Executive Power	113	(2)
How the Position of the President of the United States Differs from That of a Constitutional King in France	115	(3)
Accidental Causes That Can Increase the Influence of the Executive Power	118	(1)
Why the President of the United States Does Not Need to Have a Majority in the Houses in Order to Direct Affairs	119	(1)
On the Election of the President	120	(4)
Mode of Election	124	(2)
Crisis of the Election	126	(2)
On the Reelection of the President	128	(2)
On the Federal Courts	130	(3)
Manner of Settling the Competence of the Federal Courts	133	(2)
Different Cases of Jurisdiction	135	(4)
Manner of Proceeding of Federal Courts	139	(2)
Elevated Rank Held by the Supreme Court among the Great Powers of the State	141	(2)
How the Federal Constitution Is Superior to the Constitutions of the States	143	(3)
What Distinguishes the Federal Constitution of the United States of America from All Other Federal Constitutions	146	(3)
On the Advantages of the Federal System Generally, and Its Special Utility for America	149	(5)
What Keeps the Federal System from Being within Reach of All Peoples, and What Has Permitted the Anglo-Americans to Adopt It	154	(11)
PART TWO
How One Can Say Strictly That in the United States the People Govern	165	(1)
On Parties in the United States	166	(6)
On the Remains of the Aristocratic Party in the United States	170	(2)
On Freedom of the Press in the United States	172	(8)
On Political Association in the United States	180	(7)
On the Government of Democracy in America	187	(33)
On Universal Suffrage	187	(1)
On the Choices of the People and the Instincts of American Democracy in Its Choices	187	(3)
On the Causes That Can in Part Correct These Instincts of Democracy	190	(2)
Influence That American Democracy Exerts on Electoral Laws	192	(2)
On Public Officials under the Empire of American Democracy	194	(2)
On the Arbitrariness of Magistrates under the Empire of American Democracy	196	(2)
Administrative Instability in the United States	198	(1)
On Public Costs under the Empire of American Democracy	199	(4)
On the Instincts of American Democracy in Fixing the Salaries of Officials	203	(2)
Difficulty of Discerning the Causes That Incline the American Government to Economy	205	(1)
Can the Public Expenditures of the United States Be Compared to Those of France?	206	(4)
On the Corruption and Vices of Those Who Govern in Democracy; On the Effects on Public Morality That Result	210	(2)
Of What Efforts Democracy Is Capable	212	(3)
On the Power That American Democracy Generally Exercises Over Itself	215	(2)
The Manner in Which American Democracy Conducts External Affairs of State	217	(3)
What Are the Real Advantages That American Society Derives from the Government of Democracy	220	(15)
On the General Tendency of the Laws under the Empire of American Democracy, and on the Instinct of Those Who Apply Them	221	(4)
On Public Spirit in the United States	225	(2)
On the Idea of Rights in the United States	227	(2)
On Respect for the Law in the United States	229	(2)
Activity Reigning in All Parts of the Body Politic of the United States; Influence That It Exerts on Society	231	(4)
On the Omnipotence of the Majority in the United States and Its Effects	235	(15)
How the Omnipotence of the Majority in America Increases the Legislative and Administrative Instability That Is Natural to Democracies	238	(1)
Tyranny of the Majority	239	(3)
Effects of the Omnipotence of the Majority on the Arbitrariness of American Officials	242	(1)
On the Power That the Majority in America Exercises over Thought	243	(3)
Effects of the Tyranny of the Majority on the National Character of the Americans; On the Spirit of a Court in the United States	246	(2)
That the Greatest Danger of the American Republics Comes from the Omnipotence of the Majority	248	(2)
On What Tempers the Tyranny of the Majority in the United States	250	(14)
Absence of Administrative Centralization	250	(1)
On the Spirit of the Lawyer in the United States and How It Serves as a Counterweight to Democracy	251	(7)
On the Jury in the United States Considered as a Political Institution	258	(6)
On the Principal Causes Tending to Maintain a Democratic Republic in the United States	264	(38)
On the Accidental or Providential Causes Contributing to the Maintenance of a Democratic Republic in the United States	265	(9)
On the Influence of the Laws on the Maintenance of a Democratic Republic in the United States	274	(1)
On the Influence of Mores on the Maintenance of a Democratic Republic in the United States	274	(1)
On Religion Considered as a Political Institution; How It Serves Powerfully the Maintenance of a Democratic Republic among the Americans	275	(3)
Indirect Influence That Religious Beliefs Exert on Political Society in the United States	278	(4)
On the Principal Causes That Make Religion Powerful in America	282	(6)
How the Enlightenment, the Habits, and the Practical Experience of the Americans Contribute to the Success of Democratic Institutions	288	(4)
That the Laws Serve to Maintain a Democratic Republic in the United States More than Physical Causes, and Mores More than Laws	292	(4)
Would Laws and Mores Suffice to Maintain Democratic Institutions Elsewhere than in America?	296	(2)
Importance of What Precedes in Relation to Europe	298	(4)
Some Considerations on the Present State and the Probable Future of the Three Races That Inhabit the Territory of the United States	302	(101)
Present State and Probable Future of the Indian Tribes That Inhabit the Territory Possessed by the Union	307	(19)
Position That the Black Race Occupies in the United States; Dangers Incurred by Whites from Its Presence	326	(22)
What Are the Chances That the American Union Will Last? What Dangers Threaten It?	348	(31)
On Republican Institutions in the United States; What Are Their Chances of Longevity?	379	(5)
Some Considerations on the Causes of the Commercial Greatness of the United States	384	(7)
Conclusion	391	(12)
Notice	399	(4)
PART ONE INFLUENCE OF DEMOCRACY ON INTELLECTUAL MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES
On the Philosophic Method of the Americans	403	(4)
On the Principal Source of Beliefs among Democratic Peoples	407	(4)
Why the Americans Show More Aptitude and Taste for General Ideas than Their English Fathers	411	(4)
Why the Americans Have Never Been as Passionate as the French for General Ideas in Political Matters	415	(2)
How, in the United States, Religion Knows How to Make Use of Democratic Instincts	417	(7)
On the Progress of Catholicism in the United States	424	(1)
What Makes the Mind of Democratic Peoples Lean toward Pantheism	425	(1)
How Equality Suggests to the Americans the Idea of the Indefinite Perfectibility of Man	426	(2)
How the Example of the Americans Does Not Prove That a Democratic People Can Have No Aptitude and Taste for the Sciences, Literature, and the Arts	428	(5)
Why the Americans Apply Themselves to the Practice of the Sciences Rather than to the Theory	433	(6)
In What Spirit the Americans Cultivate the Arts	439	(4)
Why the Americans at the Same Time Raise Such Little and Such Great Monuments	443	(2)
The Literary Face of Democratic Centuries	445	(5)
On the Literary Industry	450	(1)
Why the Study of Greek and Latin Literature Is Particularly Useful in Democratic Societies	450	(2)
How American Democracy Has Modified the English Language	452	(6)
On Some Sources of Poetry in Democratic Nations	458	(5)
Why American Writers and Orators Are Often Bombastic	463	(2)
Some Observations on the Theater of Democratic Peoples	465	(4)
On Some Tendencies Particular to Historians in Democratic Centuries	469	(3)
On Parliamentary Eloquence in the United States	472	(7)
PART TWO INFLUENCE OF DEMOCRACY ON THE SENTIMENTS OF THE AMERICANS
Why Democratic Peoples Show a More Ardent and More Lasting Love for Equality than for Freedom	479	(3)
On Individualism in Democratic Countries	482	(2)
How Individualism Is Greater at the End of a Democratic Revolution than in Any Other Period	484	(1)
How the Americans Combat Individualism with Free Institutions	485	(4)
On the Use That the Americans Make of Association in Civil Life	489	(4)
On the Relation between Associations and Newspapers	493	(3)
Relations between Civil Associations and Political Associations	496	(4)
How the Americans Combat Individualism by the Doctrine of Self-Interest Well Understood	500	(4)
How the Americans Apply the Doctrine of Self-Interest Well Understood in the Matter of Religion	504	(2)
On the Taste for Material Well-Being in America	506	(2)
On the Particular Effects That the Love of Material Enjoyments Produces in Democratic Centuries	508	(2)
Why Certain Americans Display Such an Exalted Spiritualism	510	(1)
Why the Americans Show Themselves So Restive in the Midst of Their Well-Being	511	(3)
How the Taste for Material Enjoyments among Americans Is United with Love of Freedom and with Care for Public Affairs	514	(3)
How Religious Beliefs at Times Turn the Souls of the Americans toward Immaterial Enjoyments	517	(4)
How the Excessive Love of Well-Being Can Be Harmful to Well-Being	521	(1)
How in Times of Equality and Doubt It Is Important to Move Back the Object of Human Actions	522	(3)
Why among the Americans All Honest Professions Are Reputed Honorable	525	(1)
What Makes Almost All Americans Incline toward Industrial Professions	526	(4)
How Aristocracy Could Issue from Industry	530	(5)
PART THREE INFLUENCE OF DEMOCRACY ON MORES PROPERLY SO - CALLED
How Mores Become Milder as Conditions Are Equalized	535	(4)
How Democracy Renders the Habitual Relations of the Americans Simpler and Easier	539	(2)
Why the Americans Have So Little Oversensitivity in Their Country and Show Themselves to Be So Oversensitive in Ours	541	(3)
Consequences of the Preceding Three Chapters	544	(2)
How Democracy Modifies the Relations of Servant and Master	546	(7)
How Democratic Institutions and Mores Tend to Raise the Price and Shorten the Duration of Leases	553	(2)
Influence of Democracy on Wages	555	(3)
Influence of Democracy on the Family	558	(5)
Education of Girls in the United States	563	(2)
How the Girl Is Found beneath the Features of the Wife	565	(2)
How Equality of Conditions Contributes to Maintaining Good Mores in America	567	(6)
How the Americans Understand the Equality of Man and Woman	573	(4)
How Equality Naturally Divides the Americans into a Multitude of Particular Little Societies	577	(1)
Some Reflections on American Manners	578	(4)
On the Gravity of the Americans and Why It Does Not Prevent Their Often Doing Ill-Considered Things	582	(3)
Why the National Vanity of the Americans Is More Restive and More Quarrelsome than That of the English	585	(2)
How the Aspect of Society in the United States Is at Once Agitated and Monotonous	587	(2)
On Honor in the United States and in Democratic Societies	589	(10)
Why One Finds So Many Ambitions Men in the United States and So Few Great Ambitions	599	(5)
On the Industry in Place-Hunting in Certain Democratic Nations	604	(2)
Why Great Revolutions Will Become Rare	606	(11)
Why Democratic Peoples Naturally Desire Peace and Democratic Armies Naturally [Desire] War	617	(6)
Which Is the Most Warlike and the Most Revolutionary Class in Democratic Armies	623	(3)
What Makes Democratic Armies Weaker than Other Armies When Entering into a Campaign and More Formidable When War Is Prolonged	626	(3)
On Discipline in Democratic Armies	629	(2)
Some Considerations on War in Democratic Societies	631	(8)
PART FOUR ON THE INFLUENCE THAT DEMOCRATIC IDEAS AND SENTIMENTS EXERT ON POLITICAL SOCIETY
Equality Naturally Gives Men the Taste for Free Institutions	639	(1)
That the Ideas of Democratic Peoples in the Matter of Government Are Naturally Favorable to the Concentration of Powers	640	(3)
That the Sentiments of Democratic Peoples Are in Accord with Their Ideas to Bring Them to Concentrate Power	643	(3)
On Some Particular and Accidental Causes That Serve to Bring a Democratic People to Centralize Power or Turn It Away from That	646	(5)
That among European Nations of Our Day Sovereign Power Increases Although Sovereigns Are Less Stable	651	(10)
What Kind of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear	661	(5)
Continuation of the Preceding Chapters	666	(7)
General View of the Subject	673	(4)
Notes	677	(28)
Sources Cited by to Cqueville	705	(6)
Index	711