Tocqueville’s piece about the social conditions of the Anglo-Americas was very interesting. I believe that Tocqueville has very good ideas about social equality and this piece helped to explain a big reason as to why America is seen as a place of equality and equal opportunity. In this excerpt Tocqueville talks about the redistribution of wealth and assets from elders to their offspring. I found this to be very interesting because Tocqueville explains how the lack of property transmission laws have helped to wean out the transfer of large amounts of wealth and assets thus forcing people to start out on relatively the same playing field. The reason why America has an equal level of equality in Tocqueville’s opinion is due to the fact that most of the land and assets of elders has been parcelled out so thin that it is not significant enough to impact the playing field in which their children are apart of. I found this piece interesting because I think that Tocqueville’s ideas on wealth transfer and its impact on equality in America are accurate but I think contemporary things have changed. In today’s society there seems to be a lot more wealth inequality which has a significant effect on the opportunities of all citizens in America. Tocquville explains how the absence of laws upon wealth transfer has lead to this point but how would Tocqueville explain the continuation of wealth in certain families and more broadly certain groups within America? How would Tocqueville explain how America has gone from a place of equal opportunity to a place where certain groups of people have had better opportunities handed to them through generation transfer of wealth?
Tag: Inheritance law
Tocqueville begins this section by underscoring how important a people’s social condition is to the development of their society. He then goes on to elaborately describe the social condition of America during its development, what traits were embued then, and how those traits are evermore present in the current day (1835 of course.)
The fact that America has a democratic society is paramount and serves as the justification for all of his claims about the characteristics of the American people. The most significant “foot in the door” for democracy is the nature of the U.S’s inheritance laws. Tocqueville explains that the law of primogeniture (land passed down to eldest son) encourages the development of large landed estates and eventually aristocracy. America’s inheritance law, that property be split equally between children, serves two practical functions that are essential to the development of democracy. Firstly, they prevent the development of massive estates and the emergence of a landed elite class, and secondly, they affect the minds of people with family by severing the intimate tie between family and estate. Both of these systems are self-perpetuating and quickly become unstoppable, and America has chosen the one that inevitably lead to a democracy, the likes of which the world has never seen.
What I believe is most significant about this expert is probably 100 different things. I am referring specifically to Tocqueville’s multitudinous characteristics of the American people. Almost all of his quotes are directly relevant to the political dialogue of today, and each is so significant I bet you could devote a lecture series or a whole class to it. I am going to place some examples of this below.
“But wealth circulates with inconceivable rapidity, and experience shows that it is rare to find two succeeding generations in the full enjoyment of it.”
“It is not only the fortunes of men that are equal in America; even their acquirements partake in some degree of the same uniformity.”
“In America most of the rich men were formerly poor; most of those who now enjoy leisure were absorbed in business during their youth; the consequence of this is that when they might have had a taste for study, they had no time for it, and when the time is at their disposal, they have no longer the inclination.”
“This passion tends to elevate the humble to the rank of the great; but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom.”
There are dozens more I could have chosen, and keep in mind this excerpt is but one or two pages in a 900+ page book. Tocqueville has something to say about every conceivable element of American politics and politics/society/humanity generally, and I believe that most of the time, he is correct.