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 450 (start at Chap, 15 heading) – 458 (stop at Chapter 17 heading) of this edition of Democracy in America.

What kind of education should people receive in a democratic society like the United States? Tocqueville has a characteristically nuanced answer to this question. One part of that answer reflects his understanding that Americans, as democratic citizens, are educated—or formed—by various sources beyond formal schooling. A second element derives from his willingness to tailor his prescriptions to the circumstances and character of a democratic people. A third piece exemplifies his commitment to pushing back against the regrettable tendencies of democratic life and thereby channeling it in salutary directions.

We might be initially surprised that, in Vol. 2, Pt. 1, Ch. 15 of Democracy in America, Tocqueville makes no mention of civics—education for citizenship—in his brief commentary on education in a democracy. That surprise will dissipate, though, if we remind ourselves that Tocqueville observes an array of sources of civic formation at work in the United States in the 1830s. Local political institutions, he says, “are to freedom what primary schools are to science,” habituating citizens to self-government; the institution of the jury is akin to “a school, free of charge and always open,” wherein jurors are the students; and political associations amount to “great schools, free of charge” for “all citizens” to learn about associational life. Religion fosters a sense of moral limits on democratic majorities, and Americans grow accustomed to a peaceful and orderly way of life. through their families In short, Tocqueville contends that all of these aspects of Americans’ lives contribute to an education for self-government.

With civic education supplied in this manner, Tocqueville indicates that education in a democratic society ought to aim predominantly at what he describes as a “scientific, commercial, and industrial” education. He would not be taken aback by our contemporary preoccupation with STEM fields, business majors, and vocational programs.

If democratic individuals received only an education in fine arts, he warns us that we “would have very polite but very dangerous citizens; for every day the social and political state would give them needs that they would never learn to satisfy by education.” Liberally educated, economically insecure, discontent students are unhappy individuals and destabilizing forces in a democracy. It seems that Tocqueville might echo the question that so many parents ask their college-aged children: “What are
you going to do with that degree?”

However, even in a democratic age, Tocqueville is not willing to abandon a different and arguably nobler kind of study. He tells his readers at the outset of Democracy in America that the equality of conditions “modifies everything it does not produce.” To the dismay of some, those modifications include linguistic alterations of the English language. Yet, while Tocqueville yields significant ground to the force of equality to reshape a society, he also strives to avoid some of its unnecessarily negative potentialities. Cultivated in aristocratic soil, classical literature, he argues, possesses admirable qualities that democratic literature lacks: “Thus there exists no literature better suited for study in democratic centuries.”  Only a few individuals need to or should engage in this study; hence, only a few institutions need to facilitate it. Tocqueville explains that “a few excellent universities would be worth more than a multitude of bad colleges where superfluous studies that are done badly prevent necessary studies from being done well.”

Tocqueville’s analysis encourages us to consider students as democratic citizens with civic roles to fulfill, as individuals with economic needs and aspirations, and as human beings, more generally, with the capacity for excellence. With nearly two hundred years having passed since he visited the United States, our approach to education today should likely exhibit a greater emphasis on preparation for citizenship, given that the informal sources of civic formation that Tocqueville highlighted may be insufficient in the contemporary United States. We should also take seriously the evidence that a liberal arts education, well understood, equips students to be productive in our twenty-first century economy in ways beyond what a narrow technical degree or training provides; studying classical literature—and great books more generally—has more applications than what we may immediately recognize. Finally, following Tocqueville’s lead, we should not lose sight of how education might remedy undesirable tendencies of democratic culture and promote human excellence in its multifarious splendor.

Zachary K. German is an assistant professor in the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. His research focuses on American political and constitutional thought, along with early modern thought, on questions of statesmanship, political culture and civic character, constitutional design, civic education, and politics and religion. He teaches courses on political thought, leadership, and constitutionalism, largely but not exclusively in the American context. He also contributes to K-12 civic education efforts, including teacher workshops and summer seminars for high-school students. 

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