Essay 66: How Americans Combat The Effects Of Individualism By Free Institutions (Vol. 2 Pt. 2 Ch. 4)

Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner

The essays in our study reference the following edition of Democracy In America: University of Chicago Press – 1st edition translated by Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Today’s essay references pages 485 (start at Chapter 4 heading – 488 of this edition of Democracy in America.

De Tocqueville continues his discussion of the effects of equality. The great vice promoted by equality is individualism, the idea that one can withdraw from society and only tend to himself. Equality, when misunderstood, can make people think that they have no need of each other. De Tocqueville is offering a friendly warning so that democracy can be made to work. In this chapter, he points to an answer to the challenges posed by the doctrine of equality. It turns out that Americans have found a very American solution to a very American problem.

The danger is that individualism, the vice bred by equality, is the lifeblood of despotism. Individualism allows despotism to thrive because isolated individuals do not care what the government does as long as they can remain isolated. Despotism asks people to abstain from public life. The natural meaning of words becomes inverted in a despotism. The good citizen keeps to himself while bad citizens want to work together for the common good. De Tocqueville is not necessarily speaking of the classic despotism of a cruel tyrant, but is foreshadowing the possibility of a new, “soft” despotism that can develop in democracies. Democratic despotism is less obvious but more dangerous as all it requires is for citizens to ignore public affairs.

De Tocqueville sees an answer to curb individualism and impede despotism in the American practice of free institutions. America’s free elections force individuals to look beyond themselves and to the concerns of their community. Once people realize that there are public affairs that can only be handled on the community level, they learn that they are not as independent as they thought. De Tocqueville describes the change in the human soul that results from free institutions: “Several of the passions that chill and divide hearts are then obliged to withdraw to the bottom of the soul and hide there. Haughtiness dissimilates; contempt does not dare come to light. Selfishness is afraid of itself.”

America’s free institutions force individuals to care about the community because they have free elections. The most ambitious individuals who aspire to public office realize they must depend upon their fellow citizens for support. The virtue of free elections leads De Tocqueville to declare that “Americans have combated the individualism to which equality gives birth with freedom, and they have defeated it.” It is not enough to have free elections on the national level. America’s founders knew that it was insufficient to have national representation but instead created a political need in every part of the nation for citizens to work together and depend on each other. De Tocqueville writes that “[t]he general affairs of a country occupy only the principal citizens.” These principal citizens, most obviously the representatives in Congress, only meet occasionally and struggle to form communal bonds. National affairs are too distant and abstract for the normal citizen to worry about. The local affairs of a particular place, however, concern the people who live there and lead them to know each other.

People are forced to care about local affairs because it directly impacts their own interests:
Only with difficulty does one draw a man out of himself to interest him in the destiny of the whole state, because he understands poorly the influence that the destiny of the state can exert on his lot. But should it be necessary to pass a road through his property, he will see at first glance that he has come across a relation between this small public affair and his greatest private affairs …
Local affairs have an unavoidable effect on one’s life and livelihood. The pursuit of one’s interest on the local level brings people together in a community: “Local freedoms, which make many citizens put value on the affection of their neighbors and those close to them, therefore constantly bring men closer to one another, despite the instincts that separate them, and force them to aid each other.” Personal interests lead individuals to pay attention to their neighbors and eventually cause them to care about their community.

De Tocqueville describes a process where self-interest leads people to get involved in their community, ultimately overcoming individualism and leading citizens to transcend their self-interest to make real sacrifices: “One is occupied with the general interest at first by necessity and then by choice; what was calculation becomes instinct; and by dint of working for the good of one’s fellow citizens, one finally picks up the habit and taste of serving them.” For De Tocqueville, “[i]t is not the elected magistrate who makes American democracy prosper; but it prospers because the magistrate is elective.” Local elections drive Americans out of their homes and into their community. The necessity of electing offices guards against despotism by causing Americans to see their place within a larger community.

Benjamin Slomski is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Campus Pre-Law Advisor at Purdue University Fort Wayne. He earned his PhD from Baylor University and his teaching and research focus on American political thought, constitutional law, and political institutions. He previously taught at Ashland University, Tarleton State University, and Baylor University.

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