Tocqueville’s Centralization Well-Understood

Abstract

Alexis de Tocqueville champions participation in local government institutions—such as the New England township—as a counter to the centralizing tendencies of democratic governments. But his understanding of self-education through local participation is only a part of a larger education that includes participation in political associations and appreciating a free press. In this article, I thus argue that Tocqueville is opposed to the abuses inherent in centralization as opposed to centralization itself. To combat these abuses, it is important to appreciate the goods of centralization in addition to the goods of decentralization, the township, and self-government for which Tocqueville’s pedagogy is rightfully associated.