Upon receiving the syllabus for this class, I was very excited to learn that we would be reading selections from Alexis De Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. I have been reading this book on and off since January of 2019 and I am about 300 pages in. So far it is one of the greatest books I have ever read. The first selection we were assigned is a good example of the task that Tocqueville completes thousands of times over. I am certain that any page of his book could be the topic of a lecture or class discussion because of the richness of the content he provides.
The assigned selection exemplifies how Tocqueville formulates his position on a subject regarding society that is congruent across all levels. What I mean by that is he starts at the most foundational level of human existence, then builds his way up to how a society organizes its government. At every level, he presents alternatives and analyzes their ramifications.
Tocqueville begins by analyzing the human condition, demonstrating a profound and accurate understanding of how man thinks, what distinguishes man from beasts, and the motivating forces behind the human spirit. Analysis of this foundational idea is coupled with an attempt to understand another foundational human idea: perfection. Societies, religions, and philosophical schools of thought have been analyzing perfection: its possibility, its actualization in the real world, its origins, and so on for all of human history, and Tocqueville flawlessly takes a position and smoothly incorporates the idea into his argument.
Keep in mind, the passage concludes by comparing the ramifications of both a democratic government and an aristocratic government for the people living within the society. Each new idea or example or piece of evidence the author presents builds on an understanding of the ‘first principles’ articulated at the start. In my opinion, this is the genius of Tocqueville. As a Political Science major and as someone who is interested in studying government, society and the human condition, almost everything I have read from him so far has blown my mind. In my own studies, I have ran across academics and pundits who can make an argument that is cohesive from the bottom to the top; they go from a description of reality to a public policy prescription. I personally strive to be able to do this successfully too. But few thinkers I have come across have even come close to Alexis De Tocqueville. The fact that we are still studying his work 180+ years later is completely justified.