Democracy in America

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ISBN: 9780226805368 | 0226805360
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 4/1/2002

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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.

Editors' Introduction

xvii

Suggested Readings

lxxxvii

A Note on the Translation

xci

Introduction

(16)

PART ONE

External Configuration of North America

(8)

On the Point of Departure and Its Importance for the Future of the Anglo-Americans

(18)

Reasons for Some Singularities That the Laws and Customs of the Anglo-Americans Present

(1)

Social State of the Anglo-Americans

(8)

That the Salient Point of the Social State of the Anglo-Americans Is Its Being Essentially Democratic

(6)

Political Consequences of the Social State of the Anglo-Americans

(1)

On the Principle of the Sovereignty of the People in America

(3)

Necessity of Studying What Takes Place in the Particular States before Speaking of the Government of the Union

(37)

On the Township System in America

(1)

Size of the Township

(1)

Powers of the Township in New England

(3)

On Township Existence

(2)

On the Spirit of the Township in New England

(2)

On the Country in New England

(1)

On Administration in New England

(9)

General Ideas about Administration in the United States

(4)

On the State

(1)

Legislative Power of the State

(1)

On the Executive Power of the State

(1)

On the Political Effects of Administrative Decentralization in the United States

(11)

On Judicial Power in the United States and Its Action on Political Society

(7)

Other Powers Granted to American Judges

(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

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Democracy in America

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials