Essay 99: A Few Special And Accidental Reasons Why A Democratic Nation Adopts Centralization Of Government Or Turns Away From It (Vol. 2 Pt. 4 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 646 – 650 of this edition of Democracy in America.

Introduction 

American federalism is often seen as one of the great innovations of American Constitution writing. It has often been observed that the United States system of decentralized federalism is the key to understanding American freedom. But federalism is not merely an institution, or a set of procedural power sharing agreements. 

According to De Tocqueville, it is also a cultural phenomenon, a way of life. Federalism grew out of a complex interplay of factors, including history, accident, and the legislative genius of the American framers. American decentralized federalism is therefore both an object of political science (because it can be studied empirically) and political culture, because it involves the habits and mores of a democratic culture. It involves  “thinking federal,” as the federalism scholar Daniel J. Elazar would say. In Part Four of Volume Two, De Tocqueville looks at the main threats to American federalism, both as an institution and as a way of life. 

The Danger of Centralization 

De Tocqueville’s insights on the dangers to American federalism appear in Chapter 4, titled “On some particular and accidental causes that serve to bring a democratic people to centralize power or turn it away from that.” 

According to De Tocqueville, centralization is a danger to all democratic societies. But it is not equally dangerous in all ways. “If all democratic peoples are instinctively drawn toward the centralization of powers, they tend to it in an unequal manner” (II.4.4. P. 646). 

Some democratic peoples tend to “rush toward the center” from an early period in their transition to an equal social state (II.4.4). Others resist the centralizing pull longer. Why do some countries fall faster toward the temptations of a single state apparatus, while others are able to resist that temptation? To answer that question, De Tocqueville provides a summary account of five causes of centralization. 

The Causes of Centralization 

De Tocqueville lists four main “accidents” and one “primary” cause of democratic centralization. The first four causes are: 1) violent revolution; 2) a lack of aristocracy or “intermediate powers”; 3) a lack of general education (in De Tocqueville’s words, a lack of Enlightenment); 4) war. The “primary cause” is a love of equality. 

Revolution

Not all revolutions are equal. Some revolutions, De Tocqueville observes, lead to extreme centralization (a “rush towards the center”). This can happen if the people are not accustomed to political freedom and basic liberties, as was the case in the English colonies: 

“The English who came three centuries ago found a democratic society in the wilderness of the New World…had all been habituated in the mother country to take part in public affairs; they knew the jury; they had freedom of speech and of the press, individual freedom, the idea of right and the practice of resorting to it. They transported these free institutions and virile mores to America, and these sustained them against the encroachments of the state.” 

France, by contrast, experienced a rapid onset of equality – without having first gone through the trials of modern freedom. If we were to translate De Tocqueville’s argument into modern political science jargon, we would say that the English went through a process of liberalization previous to its experiment with democratization. By contrast, the French Revolution is an example of extreme democratization without liberalization. 

Voluntary Associations

Extreme centralization can occur when there is a lack of voluntary associations, an independent middle class, and a respect for certain kinds of intermediate powers (see p. 647). De Tocqueville is especially critical of class warfare, which springs from the desire to eliminate rival factions. This desire to eliminate all class differences in society is harmful because it weakens local institutions, while tending to transfer administrative rule from “all points of the circumference to the center.” The desire to eliminate inequality, in all its forms, also sets up a master-slave dynamic between friends and neighbors. The obsession with equality trains citizens to “dread and hate one another.” In modern social science language, De Tocqueville  is describing what is now called “affective polarization.” Centralization is more likely in highly polarized societies because rival factions fear and loathe the other side, and thus feel more compelled to “call in the sovereign” to take over the (messy) details of local and provincial or state government. 

Education and Ignorance

De Tocqueville also links ignorance, or a lack of education, to centralization (see p. 649). A society that values intelligence, science, and art (p. 648) is one that will have more independent thinkers. More independence of thought is necessary for the creation of “secondary powers.” These “free associations” resist centralization and are useful to a society because they are “in a position to struggle against tyranny without destroying order.” 

War

Finally, De Tocqueville mentions war. De Tocqueville does not deny that extreme centralization is useful in some circumstances. Indeed, the main advantage of highly unitary states is that they are capable of “great undertakings” (p. 649). And that is the problem. Societies that are highly centralized are able to bring “all of one’s resources rapidly” to bear on a certain point. But success in war tends to lead to more centralization. In De Tocqueville’s memorable phrase: 

“It is principally war that people feel the desire to“increase the prerogatives of the central power. All geniuses of war love centralization, which increases their strength, and all centralizing geniuses love war, which obliges nations to draw tight all powers in the hands of the state.” 

Summary

De Tocqueville’s analysis of the causes of centralization are compelling, and should receive more attention than it does. However, De Tocqueville ends with a caveat. The four causes of centralization are “accidental” and circumstantial. Today we would say, probabilistic. Over-centralization and tyranny are not certain, but only more likely, if these causes are present. No single cause will set a nation on a path-dependent trajectory to administrative despotism. 

The most important concept to understand, De Tocqueville concludes, is the love of equality.  A nation that loves equality must face the fact that the pull of centralization and authoritarianism is often stronger than the pull of decentralization and freedom. In the long run, the temptations of centralization may be impossible to resist, especially in times of war or emergency; in an era of high social polarization; when the habits of liberty are taken for granted or forgotten; and when a nation ceases to place a premium on intelligence and education.

Andrew Bibby is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science and History Department at Utah Valley University. He serves as Associate Director of the Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University and is the director of the Federalism Index Project.

He has published in various outlets, including the Wall Street Journal. Andy has taught classes in classical and modern political philosophy, American literature, and American political thought. He has research interests in modern political theory, political economy, and American federalism. He is the author of Montesquieu’s Political Economy and Rival Visions: How Jefferson and His Contemporaries Defined the Early American Republic.

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