Alexis De Tocqueville: « Democracy In America » (démocratie en Amérique) Vol. 2 (document en anglais)

To start, I must say that reading the first part of this book was really interesting for me (and I am continuing to read it as I am writing) as I had the chance to spend 2 years in New York. What amazed me is the author’s ability to “get the whole picture” of America’s frame of mind. Tocqueville sets out to explain to the reader the workings of democracy in the United States, and he does so from several perspectives. I know Tocqueville traveled with Gustave de Beaumont during 9 months across the country normally to study the jail system in America but it also obviously gave him time to study politics and its effects on society.

I learned that democracy had a fundamental impact on every field of American society: politics of course but also arts, science, values, mores, even architecture. Americans are a lot more practical than us European, they love order, and that’s something I could experience in school. The studies are a lot more concrete and organized than in the French educational system. In America, people are born equal before becoming equal. For example, they have this way to encourage all students even those with bad grade, at first that was a surprise! But at the end I really enjoyed their ideas and teaching methods, really not the same approach. Other example of their practical sense could be how Tocqueville was astonished by the rational and orderly manner in which, compared to his own native country, France, politics is pursued. This order and vision can still be seen nowadays.

Religion is one of the author’s main concerns. It’s the first thing that strikes him when arrived in the US. In his opinion, it can be very important to combat the negative results of egalitarianism, such as materialism or egoism. However, religion should confine itself to its proper sphere. I agree with the author and in fact I was surprised even though I was younger about the omnipresence of religion in America; “In God we trust”, “God bless America”, it really had and has a strong influence on Americans’ behavior and opinion and in democratic societies, the force of public opinion is significant; an illustration may be their devoted patriotism. Anyway, I think that today it kind of “came out of its sphere” and things are a little confused, but might evolve with Barack Obama’s presidency.

Even though we only had to read a short passage of this classic, Tocqueville’s reasoning on individual sentiments and habits (that in turn are products of social institutions and structures) impressed me. He is strikingly consequent in insisting on factors at the individual level when seeking to understand and explain the particularities of democracy in America. I really enjoyed my 2 years in America and now that I can understand the mechanism of America’s democracy, this was a really interesting text to read. Tocqueville obviously was a visionary and even though I found his analysis sometimes unclear or contradictory, I now have a better understanding of democracy and its potential dangers (such as conformism).

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