Abstract
Alexis de Tocqueville set out to discover the earliest roots of liberty's seeming abundance in America, how expressions of it evolved, and why it was as likely to wither under certain conditions as it was to find new beginnings and thrive. He was one of the first to point out that the promise of liberty in a democracy is not fulfilled when it is regarded only as an electoral exercise. He thought of democracy as an opportunity to enlarge participation and deliberation with the goal of sorting out the separate spheres of private and public life, yet keeping them linked together without damaging one or the other. In their democracy, Americans showed that they were far removed from the apathy marking life in the French communes. Tocqueville saw in the New England townships “activity … information and the spirit of innovation … a … society [which is] always at work” bent on achieving through government “the welfare of a people.” Americans were “ardent sectarians and daring innovators.” They were uniquely able to combine “the spirit of religion and the spirit of liberty” (Democracy in America, trans. Henry Reeve, ed. Phillips Bradley [1945], Vol. I, p. 95, n. 50; p. 45, italics his).
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