Tocqueville and Local Government: Distinguishing Democracy's Second Track

Abstract

In arguing for democracy's universal promotion in the world today, America's leaders simplify democracy's procedural requirements and reduce the nature and degree of participation required of its citizens. Tocqueville's more sophisticated analysis of the essential underpinnings of a healthy democratic society argues that the genius of American democracy lies in its juxtaposition of two separate democratic tracks, one national and the other local. On one track, to be sure, he situated the broad freedoms assured by our deftly balanced national constitution. But he assigned equal pride of place to a complementary track of robust “secondary liberties.” After recounting Tocqueville's lifelong effort to determine the appropriate levels of such local engagement, indexed to considerations of religion, national security, and the progress of civilization itself, the essay explains that Tocqueville never took for granted democratic political transitions, seeing them as products of human wisdom and choice, not historical necessity.