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 146 (starting at heading “What Distinguishes the Constitution of the United States of America from all other Federal Constitutions – 149 (stopping at On the Advantages of the Federal system Generally and its special Utility for America) of this edition of Democracy in America.
The French writer De Tocqueville traveled in and wrote about the culture and politics of the new American Republic between 1835 and 1840. His work has become a classic of political thought and is considered one of the most insightful analyses of the early Republic and its institutions. Democracy in America is De Tocqueville’s most important work, particularly for our consideration of the Constitution.
The question in subchapter 21 is a crucial one, even in current discourse on the Constitution. De Tocqueville asks what makes the American Constitution different from other constitutions. In his day, the American version was certainly not the only constitution in effect (even less so today). In addition, several elements set the American compact apart from other similar documents, such as Poland and France. De Tocqueville focuses on one aspect—a very important one. As he explains it, the most unique innovation of the American Constitution is that, unlike the previous Articles of Confederation, whose provisions only allowed the national government to operate on state governments as a whole, the new compact’s provisions operated directly on citizens of each state. Before, the state governments could, and sometimes did, simply refuse to follow laws enacted by Congress based on its powers. As De Tocqueville writes, “In America, the Union has, not states, but plain citizens, for those governed.” The new Constitution bypasses the states in the exercise of its enumerated powers.
This innovation might at first seem somewhat insignificant. But if one remembers the previous regime, it was the very problem of the inability of the Congress to enforce its powers that threatened the survival of the new republic. This flaw (at least in large part) drove the Constitutional Convention to take drastic action in devising a wholly new social compact. Even assuming common interests existed among the entire population and across all or most states, the possibility that each time Congress attempted to enforce its agreed-upon powers could lead to defiance on the part of even one state, and could inevitably incentivize more states to ignore the national government. The entire confederation might disintegrate.
Vincent Ostrom has elaborated on the political theory underlying the American Founders’ innovation, beginning with the foundational idea that “people as individual persons are the fundamental units to be considered in organizing any political association…The individual person is the doer of acts. The way each individual as a person relates himself to others is the basis of all social organization.” The fundamental reason for the existence of government is to establish order among individuals. Collectivities as a whole cannot make such decisions apart from the individuals constituting them. Moreover, individuals as individuals are the recipients of political order, as a given law or policy does not fall on an abstract entity called a state, but on natural humans, notwithstanding the occasional legal attribution of some corporate entities as legal persons. Even a decision affecting a corporation in the first instance eventually affects the individuals related to that corporation, not the “thing” called a corporation—for example, employees and consumers.
In addition, De Tocqueville and the American Founders recognized that laws needed to be enforced to be effective. But under the previous Articles of Confederation, sanctions amounted only to advice or suggestions. To be effective, laws had to be enforceable as against individuals, the actual actors. Without the design of the Founders, the very idea of a government and its goal would be thwarted, to the detriment of the citizens. Once again, one can see the uniqueness of the American Constitution. It would not be an overstatement to assert that the American constitutional system would not work, in fact, might collapse, without this innovation added by the Founders.
Marc A. Clauson is Professor of History, Law and Political Economy and Professor in Honors at Cedarville University. Marc holds a PhD from the University of the Orange Free State, SA, Intellectual History and Polity); JD (West Virginia University College of Law, Jurisprudence); MA, ThM (Liberty University, New Testament Studies and Church History); MA (Marshall University, Political Science); BS (Marshall University, Physics); and PhD work (West Virginia University, Economic Theory).
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