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In the essay "Individualism and Free Institutions," Alexis de Tocqueville describes how despotism and equality can both negatively affect a society. He relates despotism to the tyranny and selfishness of some governments and equality with freedom. One will expect that since equality means freedom then people will unite as citizens and work together to better our communities, but in the process of working with one another they find themselves tied up with civic obligations and find out that their freedom is not a reality, and that as citizens they must be continuously cooperating and sharing their ideas with others. When they feel they have great ideas their ego kicks in and start to divide in groups and to compete with one another. This is when freedom creates hatred as described by Tocqueville. On the other hand despotism separates citizens because they assume that since someone is already in charge, they see no need in getting involved. When the government is in charge of the public affairs, citizens feel that the government has full responsibility so they revert back into their own individual lives. This is when despotism gives birth to general indifference. These two ideals as described by Tocqueville are seen as two things that complement and aid each other in a fatal manner. (Y. Bravo)

Alexis de Tocqueville lived from 1805 to 1859. He was a French aristocrat, politician, and intellectual who traveled widely and wrote about socio-political events of his day. His most well-known works are Democracy in America (two volumes: 1835, 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). A major theme in his work was how increasing equality of social conditions affected individuals and the state. In recent decades Tocqueville has become a reference-thinker for those working on civil society, individualism, and social capital.

1. What does Tocqueville have to say about despots and isolation?

2. At 246.9 Tocqueville suggests that group life can effect a fundamental transformation of the self's attitude toward the world. Discuss.

3. Name a few of the anti-social passions Tocqueville mentions at 247.2.

4. Why would he suggest that equality gives birth to individualism and that this was seen as a problem? (247.5)

5. Why does participation in local public affairs promise more effect than if there were only big national affairs?

6. "…one ties the poor to oneself more by manners than by benefit" (248.3). Offer both a cynical and a generous explanation of what this and the rest of text here mean.

7. "It is not the elected official who makes American democracy prosper; but it prospers because the magistrate is elected" (248.7).

8. For Tocqueville, the "public mindedness" of American's was a bit of a puzzle. What can you say about this? (248.8)

9. Gather Tocqueville's contrast of aristocratic and democratic societies around the question of organizing to get thing done into a table of contrasts.

10. At 250.9 Tocqueville almost anticipates Hayek when he says, "sure, you could get government to do some of the stuff that associations do, but it would never be practical to do all the little things that a zillion associations do." Comment.

11. What is Tocqueville's mechanism for how political association leads to change in social beings?

12. "…that in democratic times one ties the poor to oneself more by manners than by benefits…." (248.4)

1. How the Americans Combat Individualism with Free Institutions
   • despotism thrives on isolation, despises connection
   • public life gets you outside your own head
   • it suppresses anti-social passions
   • elections generate apathy
     • but you say elections get nasty; yes, but it passes; even if elections divide a few, they end up uniting lots of folks who'd otherwise never connect
   • freedom trumps despotism because it has particular hates rather than generalized indifference
   • It's hard to get folks to think of "the public" instead of themselves, but if you structure it around very local stuff, they can see the public good aspect and shift their perspective (247.7)
   • One approach to being elected is the big splash act (charisma?) but more common is to develop track record (compare norm of cooperation and tit-for-tat iterative strategy)
   • In democracy the rich cannot over-isolate themselves; no place for class-haughtiness.
   • "Social entrepreneurship" abounds (248.7)
   • There is a peculiar public mindedness among Americans. T thinks it's because there's a constant involvement in social calculation and this tempers our tendency for self calculation.
2. On the Use that the Americans Make of Association in Civil Life
   • If you compare aristocratic and democratic societies, you see that in the former, it's easy for a few wealthy folks to get together and do something. More challenging when it's lots of small folks in a democracy.
   • Some would suggest that this points to what the state should do, but Tocqueville thinks states just could not do all the stuff that associations do. Sort of Hayekian but from the other direction.
   • Democratic societies need to create local solidarity because among the mass you don't have it artificially there as you do in a an aristocratic society.
   • The state can't pull it off (251.5)
   • Associations become the substitute for local nobles and the like (251.7)
3. Relations Between Civil Associations and Political Associations
   • political association and civil association (253.6)
   • small scale working together leads to larger association
   • there might be self-sufficiency in the economic sphere, there's definitely NOT in the political sphere (253.9)
   • shared generic interests don't automatically generate a compulsion to associate the way politics does
   • political association draws people outside themselves (Marx might say it connects them to a class consciousness, Durkheim would say either that it creates or connects them to collective consciousness).
   • political associations thus plant the idea that association is how you get things you want
   • and so as soon as an American wants something, they think of starting a club
   • message to nervous leaders: you can't restrict the associating to just small things - what you are after is a general urge to associate
   • freedom of political association not so dangerous as some think and it can even provide for stability in the long run (254.6)
   • some leaders will love having civil associations but not want to have political but this interrupts the feedback loop by which the latter generate the former
   • lots and lots of civil associations mean that there are endless projects afoot that depend on stability so nobody wants to upset the apple cart and start a revolution
   • easy to get nervous about associations if you take a static view, but dynamic, over the long run, the feedback is beneficial.

In order that men remain civilized or become so, the art of associating must be developed and perfected among them in the same ratio as equality of conditions increase. (252.5)