Essay 70: How Americans Counteract Individualism By The Doctrine Of Self-Interest Properly Understood (Vol. 2 Pt. 2 Ch. 8)

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 500 (start at chapter 8 heading) – 503 of this edition of Democracy in America.

Virtue, Individualism, and Self Interest Rightly Understood

Much could be said about the prescience of Alexis De Tocqueville, reflected especially in his classic work, Democracy in America. De Tocqueville’s two volume work is not called the most insightful work on American political culture and institutions ever written by a foreigner for nothing. One of the key reasons why historians and political theorists have placed De Tocqueville’s Democracy in such a lofty position is that the book is more than just political science. De Tocqueville based his political insights on human nature itself.

De Tocqueville saw human nature as complex, yet as being broadly two-fold. On the one hand, persons were self-centered, prone to concentrating and abusing power, and greedy for material wealth. On the other hand, persons yearned for freedom, were disposed to direct their thoughts and actions toward virtue and the eternal world, innately religious, and communal. Persons were always looking to secure the common good. 

Thus, De Tocqueville saw a conflict in human nature between the tendency toward individualism (which fed greed, isolation, and despotism) and the longing for virtue (which fed public spirit, religious faith, and freedom). 

The founders of our republic are well-known for insisting on the indispensability of virtue for the success of a republic. Republics cannot survive if the citizenry lacks virtue, that is, moderation, courage, justice, and wisdom. When De Tocqueville came to America in 1831, he did not consider Americans a virtuous people. However, he did think they had mastered the art of channeling the vice of selfishness in a virtuous direction. He thus described Americans as having l’interêt bien entendu, or self interest rightly understood. 

De Tocqueville saw that Americans had a strong tendency toward individualism—selfishness and greed that isolated citizens from their communities resulting in the concentration of power in government. Such a concentration of power led to majorities who would then be in position to tyrannize minorities, limiting their freedom of speech and exercising a form of tyranny he called democratic despotism. Nevertheless, Americans were able to counteract that individualistic tendency by securing public goods by means of advancing their private interests. While Americans were not necessarily virtuous, they did carefully consider how they could make small sacrifices that would benefit themselves as well as the rest of their communities.

Consider an example from our own day. When we make charitable contributions, we write the combined value of our yearly contributions off on our income taxes. Thus, we as citizens are encouraged to give to charitable causes generously because we receive something of great benefit. In this way, both public and private goods are obtained. Writing off your charitable contributions each year when you prepare your taxes is an ordinary example of self-interest rightly understood.  As De Tocqueville wrote, “American moralists do not claim that one must sacrifice oneself because it is great to do it; but they say boldly that such sacrifices are as necessary to the one who imposes them on himself as the one who profits from them” 

The effect of self interest rightly understood, as De Tocqueville saw it, was that it “turns personal interest against itself” thereby mitigating the power of individualistic tendencies. American citizens were not paragons of virtue, but in the practical, ordinary behavior in public and private, they achieved a balance between public and private interests. The power of self interest rightly understood could be seen in how citizens nurtured their local communities. De Tocqueville described such nurturing as public spirit. With public spirit, citizens understood that they had a personal stake in the success or failure of their localities. If their town flourished, the individual citizens would flourish; if their town deteriorated, then citizens would also find their fortunes sinking with their town. 

Since Americans enjoyed religious freedom, religion thrived in America as in no other country De Tocqueville had ever seen. Self interest rightly understood was a product of religion. Christianity taught that love for God and love for others brought great rewards, and Americans were religious (at least in part) because they had their eye on eternity. Religion formed the basis for the mores, what De Tocqueville thought of as the moral character of the nation. Religion was essential to freedom, and self interest rightly understood was part of Americans’ understanding of the practical meaning of religion.

Americans associated together for a wide variety of causes, some national and some local. In associating together, Americans avoided isolation and selfishness, but they got together not merely in the name of the public good. Citizens associating together knew that they received benefits also, so in advancing a public cause, they found their freedoms secured against any threat from democratic despotism.

Self interest rightly understood plays a key role in a society that is based, not on hereditary privilege, but on basic human equality. As Americans, we can still find ways to balance public and private interests to protect our freedom.

John D. Wilsey is Professor of Church History and Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Church History at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, an initiative of First Liberty Institute.
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