Democracy in America; R. Bearce

First published in 1835 and 1840, Tocqueville's Democracy in A merica speaks today with a mes sage that places our Bicentennial into sober perspective. America's·200th Anniversary is now being heralded with enthu siastic references to "democracy," "equality," and "liberty." Tocque ville had much to say about these ideals - ideals which have been distorted, corrupted, and debased by modern poli tical writers. When Alexis de Tocqueville journeyed to the United States in 1831, he had 25 26 THE FREEMAN January an official commission from the French government to study the prison system in America. His nine-month visit, however, was devoted to more than our pris ons. Tocqueville was a keen ob server. Traveling through the young nation, he had the oppor tuni ty to view free men and women working freely in a free society. As he wrote Democracy in A merica, he grasped the true na ture of freedom. He clearly under stood the meaning of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" men tioned in the Declaration of Inde pendence.

For Otder Under Law "The ReJolution of the United States," wrote Tocqueville, "was the result of a mature and reflect ing preference of freedom, and not of a vague or ill-defined craving for independence. It contracted no alliance with the turbulent pas sions of anarchy; but its course was marked, on the contrary, by a love of order and law." (p. 62) 1 Although he used the word "rev olution" to describe the American War for Independence, Tocqueville recognized that the Thirteen Co lonies had thoughtfully weighed 1 This and subsequent page references are from Tocqueville's Democracy in America, Mentor Book edition, edited by Richard D. Heffner (New York: The New American Library, 1956). their defiance of the British Crown. Men like Jefferson and Adams were not hot-headed demagogues shouting for the destruction of existing political and economic in stitutions. The patriots had been guided by a respect for traditional freedoms. The exercise of those freedoms had been in the process for some 150 years: "The English who emigrated ...

to found a democratic common wealth on the shores of the New World had all learned to take a part in public affairs in their moth er country; they were conversant with trial by jury; they were ac customed to liberty of speech and of the press, - to personal free dom, to the notion of rights and the practice of asserting them. They carried with them to America these free institutions and manly customs, and these institutions preserved them against the en croachments of the state." (p.296) When Tocqueville spoke about the "encroachments of the state," he also pointed to the obJect of those encroachments - the free in dividual. The War for Independ ence was fought to preserve the right of men and women to order their own lives. America was a land where individuals rejected the lure of government benevo lence: "The citizen of the United States is taught from infancy to rely up1976 DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA - A CHALLENGE TO FREE MEN 27 on his own exertions, in order to resist the evils and the difficulties of life; he looks upon the social au thori ty with an eye of mistrust and anxiety, and· he claims its assist ance only when he is unable to do without it." (p. 95) The early Americans were a tough breed. Along with personal freedom they accepted accountabil ity and responsibility for their lives. Tocqueville vividly describes the character of free men who made the most of their individual liberties: "In the United States, as soon as a man has acquired some education and pecuniary resources, he either endeavors to get rich by commerce or industry, or he buys land in the bush and turns pioneer. All that he asks of the state is, not to be dis turbed in his toil, and to be secure of his earnings." (p. 261) The Voluntary Way Individual initiative! Capital ism! Personal freedom! Private property! Individual responsibil ity! The free market! These were the principles and practices Toc, queville saw in America. He fur ther describes the superiority of individual endeavor as opposed to governmental action: "When a private individual medi tates an undertaking, however di rectly connected it may be with the welfare of society, he never thinks of soliciting the cooperation of the government; but he publishes his plan, offers to execute it, courts the assistance of other individuals, and struggles manfully against all ob stacles. Undoubtedly he is often less successful than the state might have been in his position; but in the end, the sum of these private undertakings far exceeds all that the government could have done."

(p. 70) Voluntary action and personal endeavor - and thus vibrant com petition - laid the foundation for America's prosperity. Government was not the benevolent bricklayer, handing out "free" bricks to the citizenry with instructions on how to work. No, the early Americans managed their own livelihood with out governmental interference. They believed in "rugged indi vid ualism," but they also knew the meaning of cooperation - "cooper ation" not coerced by government. "The most natural privilege of man," Tocqueville wrote, "next to the right of acting for himself, is that of combining his exertions with those of his fellow-creatures, and of acting in common with them. The right of association therefore appears fo me almost as inalienable in its nature as the right of personal liberty. No legis lator can attack it without impair ing the foundations of society." (p. 98) 28 THE FREEMAN January If the legislator and government al bureaucrat mind their proper business, free men wIll cooperate voluntarily in the release of vast amounts of energy and creativity: "Americans of all ages, all condi tions, and alI dispositions, con stantly form associations. They have not only commercial .and manufacturing companies, in which all take part, but associations of a thousand other kinds, - religious, moral, serious, futile, general or restricted, enormous or diminu tive. The Americans make associ ations to give entertainments, to found seminaries, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books, to· send missionaries to the antipodes; they found in this man ner hospitals, prisons, and schools."

(p. 198) Forced Redistribution for Economic Stability Today w~are harassed by the socio-economic philosopher, the pol itician, and the statist. These men have no faith in the natural prog ress generated by free ·association and cQoperative effort. They insist that economic stability is a matter of forcibly redistributing the wealth. If the farmer has a tough time with one kind of failure or another, then grant him a subsidy. If a portion of the citizenry is judged "underprivileged" or "dis advantaged," bless it with special govermental handouts. Extended to its extreme, such governmental paternalism becomes an authori tarian system of confiscation-' taking from the producers and be stowing favors upon the non-pro ducers of society. "But it would be a simpler and less dangerous remedy," advised Tocqueville, "to grant no privilege to any, giving to all equal cultiva tion and equal independence, and leaving everyone to determine his own position. Natural inequality will soon make way for itself, and wealth will spontaneously pass in to the hands of the most capable."

(p. 161) In Democracy in America, Toc queville speaks of a "depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level, and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to in equality with freedom." Tocque ville knew that there was a differ ence between the "equality" pro claimed by the Declaration of In dependence and that of the bloody French Revolution of 1789. One led to human dignity. The other de graded man. The Declaration stat ed that "all men are created equal" - equal in their right to personal freedom and independence. The French Revolution erected a des potic Terror under the slogan: "Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!" Tocqueville saw the grim kin197-6 DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA - A CHALLENGE TO FREE MEN 29 ship between tyranny and "equal ity" : "I believe that it is easier toes tablish an absolute and despotic government amongst a people in which the conditions of society are equal, than amongst any other; and I think that, if such a government were once established amongst such a people, it would not only oppress men, but would eventually strip each of them of several of the highest qualities of humanity. Des potism, therefore, appears to me peculiarly to be dreaded in demo cratic times." (p. 306) Dangerous Equality We are living today in "demo cratic times." Should not the ideals of "democracy" and "equality" be cherished, rather than feared? Con sider what happens when the no tion of. equali ty begins to replace a devotion to individual freedom: "As the conditions of men be come equal amongst a people, indi viduals seem of less, and society of greater importance; or rather, every citizen, being assimilated to all the rest, is lost in the crowd, and nothing stands conspicuous but the great and imposing image of the people at large. This naturally gives the men of democratic pe riods a lofty opinion of· the privi leges of society, and a very humble notion of the rights of individuals; they are ready to admit that the interests of the former· 'are every thing, and those of the latter noth ing.

"They are willing to acknowledge that the power which rep,resents the community has far more in formation and wisdom than any of the members of that community; and that it is the duty, as well as the right, of that power, to guide as well as govern each private citi zen." (p. 291) What is that "power which rep resents the community"? It lies in government - whether it be local, state, or federal. Held with in justified limits, a government can defend freedom by organizing national defense and by punishing domestic acts of fraud, coercion, malpractice, and crime. Beyond those responsibilities, government al authority paves the way towards regimentation and oppression. "I think, then," warned Tocque ville, "that the species of oppres sion by which democratic nations are menaced is unlike anything which ever before existed in the world: our contemporaries will find no prototype of it in their memories. I seek in vain for an ex pression which will accurately con vey the whole of the idea I have formed of it; the old words des potism and tyranny are inappro priate: the thing itself is new, and since I cannot name,; I must define it." (pp. 302-3) 30 THE FREEMAN January His definition is ominous. He de scribes the gradual and subtle reg imentation now threatening a citi zenry indifferent to freedom: "Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to se cure .their gratifications, and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provi dent, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent, if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood ; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in per petual childhood: It is well content that the people should rejoice, pro vided they think of nothing but rejoicing.

"For their happiness such a gov ernment willingly labors, but it chooses to he the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, fore sees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, man ages their principal .. concerns, di rects their.industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all.the trouble of liv ing?" (p. 303) Insight and Foresight Recall that Dem,ocracy in Amer icawas written in the first half of the 19th century. Tocqueville, though, had both insight and foresight. He understood ageless truths which affect human action - past, present, future. Unrestrained gov ernmental power leads to human degradation. "Thus," continues Tocqueville, "it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less use ful and less frequent; it circum scribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The princi ple of equality has prepared men for these things; it has predisposed men to endure them, and often times to look on them as benefits.

"After having thus successively taken each member of the com munity in its powerful grasp, and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends itsarm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a net work of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters can not penetrate, to rise above the crowd. "The will of man is not shatter ed, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting: such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it com presses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each na tion is reduced to be nothing bet1976 DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA - A CHALLENGE TO FREE MEN 31 ter than a flock of timid and in dustrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd. "I have always thought that ser vitude of the regular, quiet and gentle kind which I have just de scribed might be combined more easily than is commonly believed with some of the outward forms of freedom, and that it might even es tablish itself under the wing of the sovereignty of the people." (pp.

303-4) The word "sovereignty" has an honest, sturdy ring to it. Regrett ably, "We, the People" has been corrupted. There is a misguided belief that the citizenry as a whole is supreme. The current trend is to emphasize "society" - not the individual-as being of ultimate importance. When individual free doms and rights are thus belittled, authoritarian rule gains more ground: "But it happens that, at the same period and amongst the same na tions in which men conceive a nat ural contempt for the rights of private persons, the rights of soci ety at large are naturally extend ed and consolidated: in other words, men become less attached to private rights just when it is most necessary to retain and de fend what little remains of them. "It is therefore most especially in the present democratic times that the true friends of the liberty and the greatness of man ought con stantly to be on the alert, to pre vent the power of government from lightly sacrificing the private rights of individuals to the gen eral execution of its designs. At such times, no citizen is so obscure tha tit is not very dangerous to allow him to be oppressed; no pri vate rights are so unimportant that they can be surrendered with impunity to the caprices of a gov ernment." (pp. 310-11) Spirit of Negligence Yet, as government continues to undermine personal freedom, in dividuals live complacently under the delusion that they are still blessed with liberty. The patriots of 1776 clearly recognized that their traditional freedoms were threatened by the British Crown.

The spirit of 'Seventy-Six was the spirit of vigilance. The spirit of today is that of negligenee. In Democra,cy in America, we see how there is an ever-present tendency for men to seek security and safe ty at the expense of freedom: "Our contemporaries are con stantly excited by two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free: as they cannot destroy either the one or the other of these contrary pro pensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once. They devise a sole, tutelary, and all powerful form 32 THE FREEMAN Janua,ry of government, but elected by the people. They combine the principle of centralization and that of popu lar sovereignty; this .gives. them a respi te : they console themselves for being in tutelage by the reflec tion that they have chosen their own guardians. Every man allows himself to be put in leading strings, because he sees that it is not· a·· person or a. class of persons but the people at large, who hold the end of his chain.

"A great many persons at the present day are quite contented with this sort of compromise be tween administrative despotism and the sovereignty of the people; and they think they have done enough for the protection of in dividual' freedom when they have surrendered it to the power of the nation at large. This does not sat isfy me: the nature of him I am to obey signifies less to me than the fact of extorted obedience." (p. 304) Trust and Obey Obedience! Laws are passed, and they are meant .to be obeyed. Month by month Congress passes its legislative acts, erecting new bureaucracies . . . interfering further with individual lives ... imposing new restrictions upon the release of creative human en ergy. The EPA, CPSC, FE A, ICC, and so forth proclaim: "Weare the arms of Government. Trust and obey!" Tocqueville would have nothing to do with such blind faith in un limited governmental power and authority: "Unlimited power is in itself a bad and dangerous thing. Human beings are not competent to ex ercise it with discretion. God alone can be omnipotent, because his wisdom and his justice are always equal to his power. There is .no power· on earth so worthy of honor in itself, or clothed with rights so sacred, that I would admit its un controlled and all-predominant au thority. When I see that the right and the means of absolute com mand are conferred on any power whatever, be it called a people or a king, an aristocracy or a democ racy, a monarchy or a republic, I say there is the germ of tyranny, and I seek to live elsewhere, under other laws." (p. 115) The insights and prophetic ob servations of Alexis de Tocqueville stand between us and the Ameri can War for Independence. Look ing to the past, he wrote about our heritage of freedom. Looking to the.

future, he now warns us to protect that freedoms-the freedom to en joy the fruits of our labors ... the freedom to release our creative en ergies ... the freedom to accept full responsibility for our own lives. , A VAST QUANTITY of human energy will soon be expended to commem orate our bicentennial year. Per haps the most fitting monument would be intangible. In face of the seemingly insatiable appetite for gimmickry, it would be a ten-strike to go the other way and apply the surgeon's scalpel to prevailing fal lacies. Obviously there will be honest differences as to what to cut away, since one person's false notion is another fellow's credo. Recognizing the area of contro versy, I submit my own inventory of myths which could be profitably eliminated: 1. On the eXCISIon list, let's begin with the late Harry L. Hop kins' recipe for enduring political Mr. Rukeyser is well known as a business con sultant, lecturer an~ columnist.