Democracy in America

Rating:
Summary: The Foundation of Democratic Study. Period.
Review: Just reading the other reviews I'm astonished at the number of people who liked this book and didn't fully realize thay proved de Tocqueville right again. He points out that a materialistic society encourages each generation to not care a bit about previous/future generations. Its amazing how many people seem to think anything might be dated because it was written in 1830. Some things may have changed but the issues haven't. Ignore the date, this book is now.

It is a required reading by most Political Science dept. courses about American political thought. The most resonating critiques arise from his examination of the synergistic effect of individualism and materialism on democracy. Also he forbodes the ills of a strong centeralized government trampling on citizens- a warning calling out the need for strong local involvement by citizens.

With todays media its ironic that he calls Public Opinion the fourth branch of American government. I haven't seen the results of opinion polls on that last point though, I'm waiting for the Six O'clock news to tell me...

Rating:
Summary: Amazingly accurate picture of past, present and future USA
Review: One of the most stricking and accurate evaluations of the American physical, mental and emotional existence then, now and in the future. De tocquevile, before our time, predicted most if not all of our successes and failures. And both congratulated and warned us of the paths we would wind up on if we chose to go left or right along the way. A compliment to the wisdom of men of his time and an insult to the pettyness of those of ours. Reading this book along with others like the Federalist Papers makes one wonder if we are progressing or regressing in our mental abilities and reasoning powers. I tend to think, the more I study the philosophies of his time and the ones presented today that we are moving backwards in knowledge, wisdom and common sense. The more technologically advanced we seem to become the more spoiled arrogant and naieve we seem to be in our social, economic and judicial practices. De Tocqueville and the men and women of his time were the true pioneers in mankinds attempt to be more than the sum of his parts. We have lost our way in regards to logic heading into the 21st century and the new millinium. And it will take men like our founders and De Tocqueville to lead the way back.

Rating:
Summary: Exactly what we need in the Arab world
Review: One question seemed to have dominated American policy-makers and elites in the wake of september 11: How can we make people in the Arab world (and to a lesser extent Europe and the rest of the world) understand what America is really about?
I think there is nowhere better to start than De-Tocqueville's "Democracy in America". A Frenchman and a social observer, he offers an analysis of the phenomenon that is America that is way different than what we Arabs are exposed to. My family mostly gets its info about America from Hollywood, McDonald, Gap and Arabic media (which has good reasons to fret about American interventionism in our part of the world).
The reactionary and ad-hoc measures that the American policy-makers are taking today (like establishing the scandalous and disenfranchised Al-hurra satellite Arabic TV station) only undermine and insult the intelligence of Arabs who see right-through such gambits. We need a thorough, eloquent, compassionate and outreaching approach like that of de-Tocqueville to convince us that after all, America is a force for good in the world...
Ideally, our own Arab de-Tocqueville should emerge, though I'm not very optimistic... today, America to Arabs is not just a curiosity like it used to be to the French in the 19th century, it's something much worse than that, this is why action has to be taken...

Rating:
Summary: Still the best study of American Democracy!
Review: One would have thought that 200 years after De Tocqueville's Democracy in America there would have been a better study. However, this title in question, i.e., Democracy in America
by Alexis De Tocqueville is still considered the benchmark and the must read for anyone whom is interested in how the american deomcarcy is viewed by people from a different country. Highly Recomended.

Rating:
Summary: America defined, and over 165 years ago
Review: So many aspects of the deepest and most shallow in America are laid bare by a Frenchman who came to The States in 1835 to find for himself whether individuality, freedom and liberty could survive the dangers of equality and democracy. "[The nation] depends on [its people to determine] whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or knowledge, to freedom or barbarism..." writes de Tocqueville. Perhaps, contrary to modern thought, only an outsider can so accurately assess a people. But de Tocqueville is eminently balanced, overall in favor (in my opinion) of what he saw, and thus dismissed in France upon his return.

He notes an American addiction to the practical rather than theoretical, a pragmatic concern, not for the lofty and perfect, but the quick and useful, with relentless ambition, feverish activity and unending quests for devices and shortcuts. Resulting from a requirement for survival on the frontier, these observations are the good, bad and ugly of our modern selves; Resourceful technocrats expanding comfort, health, safety or wealth by anyone with ingenuity and persistence; Our exchange of youth for old age in the workplace, improving our standard of living at the expense of our quality of life; America's shallow nature of thought, sealed up in sound-bites.

De Tocqueville finds in the sacred name of majority, a tyranny over the mind of Americans as oppressive and formidable as any other tyranny - arguably more so by virtue of its acceptance. Where monarchs failed to control thought, democracy succeeds. Opinion polls our politicians subscribe to have a power of conformity. "I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America," he writes. "It is as if the natural bond which unites the opinions of man to his tastes, and his actions to his principles is now broken..."

Of literature and art we see why so much pulp crowds the bookshelf and bamboozles fill our galleries; "Style will frequently be fantastic, incorrect, overburdened and loose - almost always vehement and bold. Authors will aim at rapidity of execution more than at perfection of detail... The object of authors will be to astonish rather than to please, to stir the passions more than charm the taste."

A fascinating evolution of perception - of self and state - unfolds as the democratization of education, property ownership and the vote expands. Wiping away the trappings of privilege transforms the serfdom mindset. We see the perception of opinion as both scoffed when originating in individuals other than ourselves, and, conversely, the worship of opinion as a manifestation of majority rule. Americans, once lionizing the intrepid individual, instead took a turn to having most pride in their sameness. Armed with this understanding, today we see each group define itself by its signals - body language, speech cadence and inflection, vocabulary and dress. Today our youth have surfer speech, rap speech, gangster dress, the hooker look. Business embraces managerese, like "due diligence", "proactive", "right sizing", "leveraging assets to meet market demands". Politicians use the word "clearly" so often that what they mean is not clear. Every group has its code words, actions and look. A time consuming process of investigating the revealed character of individuals is exchanged for quicker, simpler signs.

The climax is reached with de Tocqueville's troubling "either or"; "We must understand what is wanted of society and its government. Do you wish to give a certain elevation of the human mind and teach it to regard the things of this world with generous feelings, to inspire men with a scorn of mere temporal advantages, to form and nourish strong convictions and keep alive a spirit of honorable devotedness? Is it your object to refine the habits, embellish the manners and cultivate the arts, to promote the love of poetry, beauty and glory?... If you believe such to be the principle object of society, avoid the government of democracy, for it would not lead you with certainty to the goal.

"But if you hold it expedient to divert the moral and intellectual activity of man to the production of comfort and promotion of general well being; if a clear understanding be more profitable to a man than genius; if your object be not to stimulate the virtues of heroism, but the habits of peace; if you had rather witness vices and crimes and are content to meet with fewer noble deeds, provided offences be diminished in the same proportion; if, instead of living in the midst of a brilliant society you are contented to have prosperity around you... to ensure the greatest enjoyment and to avoid the most misery... then establish democratic institutions."

Rating:
Summary: Uncle Sam, I hardly knew Ye.
Review: Taking an 'Introduction to US politics', I was surprised to see how much of de Tocqueville's(hence deToc) poignant observations in his masterpiece,'Democracy in America', are still valid today. It is unbelievable that this was written nearly one and a half century ago, which accurate analysis led my professor to say often during class, 'If deToc came back today...' I can't understand why many people around the world have love-or/and-hate feelings against the U.S. but do not understand the U.S. at all, and why so few seem to refer to deToc's 'Democracy in America.'Maybe, because this book is the vital key to understanding Uncle Sam's psyche that some wants it to be unknown as it is. Overall, a magnificient piece of analysis that would help anyone to understand the U.S. without taking all the pains of coming over like I did.

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Summary: Americans used to be happy with their government.
Review: That, above all, is what stood out to me the most.

For the vast majority of our nation's history, most decisions that affected people's daily lives were made locally. He writes that one of the biggest reasons that Americans (in the 1800s) were happy with their government is that the federal government had almost no influence in their lives. By contrast, in Europe the people were less happy because political decisions affecting the whole country were made more centrally. Since each region in a country varies drematically in attitude towards certain laws - or lack thereof - central decisions tend to sour people's feeling towards their government.

Here is a priceless quote, of which there are many, regarding a central government that oversteps its authority and steps on the toes of state and local governments. "However enlightened and however skillful a central power may be, it cannot of itself embrace all the details of the existance of a great nation." p. 100

A good example of this is public schooling; a great idea turned into a political melee by all three levels of government. Schools began in America in the early 1600s on a local basis. Local communities were required in some states in the 1700s to have a school, but it still was run locally. In the mid to late 1800s, schools became more state institutions. For the last 30 years, we are seeing increasing federal involvement in public schools. This causes parents to feel increasingly alienated from their children's education, thus producing the apathy that naturally results from non-local control.

If you thought Americans were always unhappy with their government, this is a good read to find out how it used to work. Also, he constantly compares and contrasts Europe with America, which lends quite a bit of perspective.

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Summary: Equality vs. freedom...democracy vs. Liberty...
Review: The most intriguing and excellent thing about this edition is the thought-provoking "Introduction" by Richard Heffner.

Immediately when one starts reading this "Introduction," Heffner becomes interesting and provocative in the most engaging way:

Ever since the emergence of Jacksonian Democracy in the 1820's and 1830's, the most pervasive myth to dominate American political thinking has been our rather naive -- and mistaken -- equation of "equality" [my quotes for emphasis of the concepts] with "freedom," of "democracy" (or majority rule) with "liberty." * * * Yet Tocqueville was merely reporting, not approving. DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA is no paean to the virtues of equalitarian- ism and majority rule. Quite to the contrary -- and this is precisely what makes it so provocative and valuable for us today -- this classsic study thoroughly REJECTS Americans' now more than century-old, magical equation of equality with freedom, of democracy with liberty. No one would deny that in the Jackson era Americans had ruthlessly swept away even the trappings of privilege and presumption, and had substituted the rule of the many for the rule of the few. But had equalitarianism and majority rule proved to be unmixed blessings? Tocqueville thought not. Indeed, what he had seen of the leveling doctrines that pervaded every area of national life led him to question whether Americans' liberties, whether Americans' older concern for individual differences and freedom, could actually long survive their new penchant for equality and democracy. -- Richard D. Heffner; "Introduction."

That puts on the line the very core issues that irritated both Herman Melville and Henry David Thoreau about democracy and the society they saw growing around them. The leveling towards mediocrity and crassness and materialism were all aspects of the new "worship" brought in by Jacksonian democracy. The "tyranny of the majority" evaluated, judged, and labeled from its often uninformed and unenlightened self-congratulating plurality...and rarely questioned its own presumptions or self-justifying rationalizations...and rarely would accept criticism of itself. In its extreme form, both Poe and Melville used the term "King Mob" to refer to the spectre of the moving juggernaut of common man rule and the oppressive and unthinking slavish obedience to popular taste and opinion.

But Heffner's point about the difference between "equality" and "freedom" is an essential one in determining the depth and validity of the underpinnings which our labeled "democratic" society professes. To say that the goal of democracy is to provide equality of opportunity and equality before the law is NOT the same thing as saying that men are free within the society, even if those two essentials are somehow able to be provided for all members of the society. Thoreau understood this essential difference...he struggled with it...persons are only free within a society if they are free to reject society's dictates and labels and parameters for acceptance (in a self-affirming, positive way) and yet not be the object of scorn or derision or ostracism. The tyranny of majority opinion, according to de Tocqueville, stifles "freedom of speech." Men are loath to express extreme contrary opinions or critiques of the majority views of issues...for they will be frozen into silence and irrelevance. Those who might agree with the minority opinion are afraid to step up and stand beside their fellow nay-sayer (with whom they secretly agree)...for fear of being likewise ostracized. So then, is that society truly a place of freedom -- or only a place where (perhaps) equality of opportunity and equality before the law may theoretically be provided?

These are essential ideas to be understood and grappled with in trying to understand the true nature of democracy or Democracy...

Rating:
Summary: Every literate American should read this
Review: The specific edition I am reviewing is the Heffner addition which is a 300 page abridgement. I also own an unabridged edition but I have only read Heffner cover to cover. What is amazing about de Toqueville is how uncanny many of his observations are over a century and a half later. He accurately predicted in 1844 that the world's two great powers would be the United States and Russia. He aptly pointed out that Americans are a people who join associations and he is so right 156 years later. Although there are both religious extremists on both ends, ie fundamentalists and atheists, he was dead on that, as a whole, we are a religious society but that our religious views are moderate. De Toqueville shows how American characteristics evolved from democracy as opposed to the highly class structered societies of Europe. From de Tocqueville, it could have been predicted that pop culture, such as rock music etc, would develop in America because the lack of an aristocracy causes a less cultured taste in the arts. In a thousand and one different ways, I found myself marveling at how dead on de Toqueville was. Most controversially, those who argue that we have lost our liberties to a welfare state might well find support in de Toqueville. Here, 100 years before the New Deal, he forsaw that a strong central government would take away our liberties but in a manner much more benign than in a totalitarian government. There are certain liberties that Americans would willingly sacrifice for the common good. Critics of 20th century liberalism in the US might well point to this as an uncanny observation. By reading "Democracy in America," the reader understands what makes Americans tick. De Toquville was an astute observer of who we are as a people and should be read by all educated Americans.

I want to note that there are several editions of this great work and in deciding which to buy, be aware that each has a different translator. I feel Heffner's translation is slightly stilted but, he did such a wonderful job in editing this abridgement that it, nontheless, deserves 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: A PROFOUNDLY PROPHETIC MASTERPIECE OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Review: This book has an abundance of profound observations of both praise and constructive criticism of the American political system, delivered in a richly eloquent and distinctly objective manner by a young Nineteenth Century French aristocrat/lawyer with a very impressive grasp of enduring political reality. The heart of Tocqueville's message is twofold: (1) his praise of Americans' voluntary associations as prime examples of what results from individuals pursuing enlightened self-interest, and (2) his warning that American democracy has the potential to devolve into pervasive majoritarian tyranny by an all-powerful central government covering the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules and treating citizens like children or timid and industrious animals, in perpetuity. In other words, he accurately predicted the out-of-control bureaucracy and rule by opinion poll which is now inflicting its hypnotic popular tyranny upon us. END