Essay 9: Necessity of Studying What Takes Place in the Particular States before Speaking of the Government of the Union – Volume 1 Part 1 Chapter 5 Subchapter 12 of Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville

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 82 (starting at the heading “Administrative Decentralization”) – 93 (stop at chapter 6) of this edition of Democracy in America.

Alexis De Tocqueville: Administrative Decentralization and the Character of the United States.

“What I admire most in America are not the administrative effects of decentralization, but its political effects” (Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America).

Alexis De Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is an insightful examination of American society and its political institutions. In “The Necessity Of Examining What Happened In Individual States Before Considering The Union As A Whole – Political Effects Of Administrative Decentralization In The United States,” De Tocqueville emphasizes the importance of understanding the political structures at the state level before attempting to grasp the nature of the American Union. His admiration for the political effects of the American decentralized system highlights the importance of democratic participation and local governance over mere administrative efficiency.

In times of increasing political polarization, complexity of governance, and rising public debt, it is natural to look for ways to reduce redundancies and centralize operations. That has led many to question the effectiveness of the federalist system, especially given modern communications technologies. It is no longer difficult to communicate, as it was at our founding for example, between federal authorities and local communities. De Tocqueville was one of the first to observe that the division of powers among national, state, and local authorities in America could lead to inefficiencies in governance. After detailing some examples of this division, he readily admits that “the villages and counties of the United States would be more usefully administered by a central authority…” Yet De Tocqueville knew such efficiencies were not the most important aspect of government, but that instead, “individual forces [are] joined to the action of social forces,” and that when joined, “they often succeed in doing what the most concentrated and most energetic administration would be in no condition to execute.”

Laboratories of Democracy

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis popularized the phrase “laboratories of democracy” in the 1932 Supreme Court case New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann. His emphasis, like many of today’s writers, was on effectiveness and efficiency. “It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country,” wrote Brandeis. This has often been cited as a reason to maintain what is otherwise an inefficient diffuse administrative state, as well as for leaving as much power locally as possible. Brandeis wrote, “[m]erely to acquire the knowledge essential as a basis for the exercise of this multitude of judgments would be a formidable task…Man is weak, and his judgment is, at best, fallible.” Brandeis’ opinion echoes much from De Tocqueville who wrote, similarly, that “[a] central power, however enlightened, however learned one imagine it, cannot gather to itself alone all the details of the life of great people. It cannot do it because such a work exceeds human strength. When it wants by its care alone to create so many diverse springs and make them function, it contents itself with a very incomplete result or exhausts itself in useless efforts…” Thus, an over-centralized state “excels, in a word, at preventing, not at doing.”

Reading Democracy in America, it becomes clear that while De Tocqueville and Brandeis might agree on the benefits of decentralization, De Tocqueville emphasized its role in fostering democratic participation as the primary benefit.

The Character of the Nation

De Tocqueville’s analysis of administrative decentralization compared the distinctive nature of American governance to European nations, where administrative power was often concentrated in the hands of a few. American decentralization, to De Tocqueville, was not just a matter of convenience but a deliberate strategy to promote democratic participation. European citizens, controlled by a centralized authority, often viewed their condition as akin to being a “colonist, indifferent to the destiny of the place that he inhabits.” The citizen’s connection to the nation was therefore suspect, reliant more on tradition than a genuine belief that his nation was his own. Longevity for the nation was therefore tenuous, as its governance “[does] not concern him in any fashion,” and “belong[s] to a powerful foreigner called the government.” As a result, European citizens found themselves “swinging constantly between servitude and license.”

De Tocqueville was more bullish on the American nation, even as tradition might fade, because, unlike Europeans, the American “applies himself to each of the interests of his country as to his very own… He has for his native country a sentiment analogous to the one that he feels for his family, and it is still by a sort of selfishness that he takes and interest in his state.” Americans believe, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, that this is a nation “of the people, by the people, [and] for the people.”

Out of Many, One.

True, federalism ensures a check on national authority and guards against tyranny. Additionally, decentralization promotes a more responsive and accountable government.

Most importantly, however, decentralization fosters a political culture of what we would today call buy-in – that deeply held belief that this is our nation, that we are not subjects, but full participants in its success now and into the future. It fosters civic responsibility and engagement, and develops a habit of self-governance, responsibility, and accountability. De Tocqueville saw this buy-in as essential for the sustainment of democracy and knew, like many today, that such self-reliance should never be sacrificed on the altar of efficiency.

Jay McConville is a former soldier, political activist, and business executive who writes on Substack at Goose & Gander (jaymcconville.substack.com). He is also a fitness trainer and a doctoral candidate at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth University. Jay has served for more than seven years on Constituting America’s Governing Board of Directors.

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