Essay 6: Necessity of Studying What Takes Place in the Particular States before Speaking of the Government of the Union – Volume 1 Part 1 Chapter 5 Subchapters 1 to 5 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 56 – 65 of this edition of Democracy in America, and stops at the heading “On The County In New England.”

De Tocqueville’s study of townships in America is justly famous. He allows Americans to have pride in where they come from and in their history. He champions the idea of local civic participation and shows how it is a core element of American prosperity. The town, he tells us, is the key to understanding what true freedom is and fostering it in a democracy. This is a bold claim. Let us see what de Tocqueville has to teach us.

De Tocqueville states that one must look at the individual states prior to looking at the national government to understand America. De Tocqueville recognizes that the United States has a unique constitution that grants political power to states and the national government. The federal character of the US Constitution is one of the strengths of America. This virtue of America is better understood by examining not only the states, but also the towns and counties that make up the state. The local character of America, we will learn, gives America vitality and fosters freedom.

De Tocqueville memorably states that townships are “the sole association that is so much in nature that everywhere men are gathered, a township forms by itself.” Because towns are so natural, they exist in all societies. The town, he even declares, “appears to issue directly from the hands of God.” Despite the natural, or providential, character of towns, “the freedom of a township is a rare and fragile thing.” Town liberty requires citizens to come together and to fix their own problems. The difficulty with this is that towns often make mistakes. A large and sophisticated country “tolerates only with difficulty the trials of freedom in a township.” The authority overseeing a town often thinks that it can govern in a faster and more efficient way. As a result, town liberty is vulnerable to “the invasions of power”” (57). Town liberty, in other words, does not last long. What is amazing is that in America, town liberty still existed when de Tocqueville visited and he had reason to believe that it could possibly be maintained, albeit with considerable effort.

Rather than disparage the dysfunctional and provincial character of local towns, de Tocqueville praises them. De Tocqueville agrees that a centralized nation can sometimes get things done faster, but such a nation loses the spirit of liberty. There is something about liberty that requires small, local action by citizens. He memorably tells the reader that towns prepare citizens to be truly free:

“The institutions of a township are to freedom what primary schools are to science; they put it within reach of the people; they make them taste its peaceful employ and habituate them to making use of it. Without the institutions of a township a nation can give itself a free government, but it does not have the spirit of freedom” (57-58).

Freedom is not easy—it requires apprenticeship. Towns provide citizens with an opportunity to practice being free. Localism is a key ingredient to freedom.

The New England Township is elevated as a paragon of liberty. Numbering between two and three thousand inhabitants, New England is the epitome of local political action. De Tocqueville says that “the law of representation is not accepted” in the New England township. Citizens are their own masters and they unite to rule over themselves. This pure form of local freedom is unheard of in Europe and most of the world, de Tocqueville tells us. Ordinarily, citizens see problems, but have no power to fix them. In the township, citizens see a problem, come together to discuss the problem and to vote on how to fix it immediately. This fact of the township teaches citizens how to be powerful and independent. To be free means to have the power and independence to take action.

In the cosmopolitan world that we now live in, it can be hard to see the virtue of local towns. De Tocqueville helps us have a new perspective. He challenges us to reexamine, to rethink, what it means to be free. For de Tocqueville, freedom is not simply the right to do whatever you want, but the ability to take action with our fellow citizens to accomplish something good. By vindicating town life, de Tocqueville provides us with a practical means by which to learn and practice civic freedom. He also gives us a warning—local liberty is hard to keep. If citizens allow local decisions to be taken out of their hands, they may never get it back. Actively participating in town governance can be annoying and tiresome, but we should be wary of giving it up for the sake of convenience. Freedom requires vigilance, and even mistakes. Our small towns provide us with a space to practice the art of being free. De Tocqueville admonishes us: Return to your local communities—you will find freedom there!

Raúl Rodríguez is an Assistant Professor in the School of Civic Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame and his B.A. at Furman University. Dr. Rodríguez’s research and teaching focus on the classic texts of political philosophy and constitutional studies. His current book project is titled Redeeming Democracy: Tocqueville’s New Liberalism.

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