Democracy in America – Lessons Ignored

 I recently re-read Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and was surprised by my mixed reactions.  (I first picked it up 40 some years ago for a college course and more likely skimmed it rather than carefully digesting the contents.)

The book, written in the 1830s, is generally treated by academics as a classic examination of self-rule in practice.  The author spends many pages highlighting the vitality of American political life which engages the citizenry at all levels, but especially at the most local.  De Tocqueville particularly focuses on the affinity of the populace to associate with others, both for social, economic as well as political purposes.

The inclination of Americans to band together and participate in their own governance was heralded as the bedrock of democracy in America by the book and subsequent commentators.

[Plainly that circumstance is no longer the rule in our political life.  It has become the exception with general knowledge of our constitutional system waning - polls make clear – and with group affiliation less attractive.  If Americans increasingly don’t participate in self-government, will abdication lead to the end of the democracy?]

Less attention is given to another aspect of the American democracy which was considered by de Tocqueville as critical to its survival – a history of self-rule.  Such a history was hardly universal in the 19^th century, nor is it in the 21^st.

To quote:

 "The whole structure of the (American) government is artificial and conventional and it would be ill-adapted to a people which has not been long accustomed to conduct its own affairs..."

         How many lives and treasure were lost because U.S. policy makers trying to foist democracy on Iraq and Afghanistan ignored – or were ignorant of – these words to the wise?

So, yes, there is much to learn that has indeed stood the test of time.  But some observations – such as the necessity of a committed and virtuous pubic – are, one hopes, simply dated and no longer a prerequisite for the survival of democracy in America.