Alexis de Tocqueville: The Idea of the Ideal State

French thinker Alexis de Tocqueville was born July 29, 1805 in Paris in a noble family. His great-grandfather was a prominent monarchist who defended the Convent of Louis XVI and died during the Great Revolution. The family did everything to ensure that Alexis received a high-quality humanitarian education. In his youth, having a judicial office in Versailles, he did not practice law for long. However, much more Tocqueville was interested in the socio-political sphere, where he moved at the first opportunity.

The views of the thinker

Unlike his grandfather and father, Alexis de Tocqueville, whose biography is an example of a man who for all his life confidently set aside democratic ideals, was by no means a monarchist. His concept of an ideal state was formed due to a close acquaintance with the then little understood for Europeans the United States.

In America, Tocqueville was in 1831. Over the ocean, he went on a trip, in which he was to study the penitentiary system of the United States. Also Alexis de Tocqueville, the era of which would have been different in Europe, had it not been for the example of light-loving Americans, wanted to get to know the true democracy of the former British colonies.

Trip to the USA

In America, the Frenchman went along with his friend Gustave de Beaumont. Over the ocean, they spent nine months. All this time comrades traveled to various cities, communicated with the local intelligentsia, gained impressions about the way of life and the structure of an unfamiliar society.

In that year, 1831, the US president was Democrat Andrew Jackson. Tocqueville was lucky - he was in a country experiencing important systemic changes for himself. Another 13 have joined the federal union of thirteen states. Two of them (Missouri and Louisiana) were located behind the great Mississippi River. The French visitor was able to see firsthand the mass colonization of the western lands, where seekers of adventure and a new homeland sought.

In 1831, the US population was 13 million and continued to grow rapidly. More and more people left the eastern states and moved to the western states. The reason for this was the development of capitalism. The eastern industrial regions were characterized by poor working conditions in the factories, frequent unemployment and housing problems. The most time Alexis de Tocqueville spent in New England. He also visited the Great Lakes, looked to Canada, Tennessee, Ohio, New Orleans. The Frenchman visited Washington, where he was able to get acquainted with the principles of the work of the federal government.

Tocqueville met and became acquainted with many influential and famous Americans: Andrew Jackson, Albert Gallatin, John Quincy Adams, Jerid Sparks and Francis Lieber. Short talk with the traveler was with representatives of all walks of life. Tocqueville and Beaumont asked the Americans countless questions. Their letters to friends and relatives testify to the thorough preparation of these conversations.

"Democracy in America"

The journey of Tocqueville to the United States has borne fruit - the book Democracy in America. The writing was successful not only in France, but throughout Europe. Soon he was transferred to a dozen foreign languages. The main outstanding features of the book were the author's impartial attitude to his subject, his insight and depth of knowledge of the topic, as well as the abundance of collected unique material. Alexis de Tocqueville, whose "Democracy in America" has not lost its relevance and today, thanks to her, was deservedly ranked among the best political theorists of the XIX century.

In his book, the writer compared the political system of the United States and France. As a public figure and a future member of parliament, he wanted to transfer all the best from American experience to his native country. The basis of democracy Tocqueville saw in the traditions of the Puritans, who stood at the origins of the colonies in the New World. The main advantage of American society, he believed equality of opportunity for all residents of the country.

The concept of an ideal state

The researcher contrasted the French excessive centralization of overseas decentralization (being a consistent supporter of the latter). It was thanks to her, the thinker believed, that in the United States there were no huge cities, excessive states and striking poverty. Equal opportunities smooth out social conflicts and helped to avoid a revolution. It is interesting that Tocqueville contrasted America not only with France, but with Russia, which he considered a stronghold of pernicious autocracy.

Federalism was another sign of an ideal state, thought Alexis de Tocqueville. "Democracy in America," however, not only praised democracy, but also emphasized its shortcomings. It was Tocqueville who became the author of the famous statement "tyranny of the majority". With this phrase the author defined the order in which the power-possessing masses could inefficiently use it or at all delegate their powers to the tyrant.

The French thinker came to the conclusion that freedom of choice is the guarantee of all freedoms, and the constitutional system is necessary first of all for limiting and deterring the state. He had contradictory statements. So, Tocqueville believed that in the society of the victorious equality there is no place for art. Alexander Pushkin read "Democracy in America". The Russian poet was deeply impressed by what he said in one of his letters to Chaadayev.

The beginning of political career

After the publication of Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville went to England, where his book was very popular. Writer was waiting for the warmest reception of the reading public. In 1841, the thinker became a member of the French Academy of Sciences. He was also elected as a deputy, although his position in the ward was not distinguished by something outstanding.

Without becoming a parliamentary leader in spite of his rare political mind, Alexis de Tocqueville hardly ever came to the rostrum, but mostly worked in different commissions. He did not belong to any party, although he basically voted from the left and often opposed Conservative Prime Minister François Guizot.

Alexis de Tocqueville regularly criticized the government for his policies that did not take into account the interests of all sectors of society. In his rare speeches, the politician spoke of the inevitability of the revolution. It really happened in 1848. Although Tocqueville was a supporter of the constitutional monarchy, he recognized the new republic, considering it under the circumstances the only way to preserve civil liberties.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of France

After the revolution of 1848, Alexis de Tocqueville was elected to the Constituent Assembly. In it, he joined the rightists and began to fight the Socialists. Especially persistently the thinker defended the right of ownership. The attacks on him by the Socialists, Tocqueville believed, could lead to an encroachment on the freedom of the inhabitants of the country and an excessive expansion of state functions. Fearing despotism, he advocated limiting the presidential power, the establishment of a bicameral parliament, etc. None of these proposals were implemented in practice.

In 1849, Alexis de Tocqueville, whose biography as politics was short-lived, was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Odilon Barrot. The main task of the head of the diplomatic department saw the preservation of French influence in neighboring Italy. It was then that the long process of creating a single state ended on the Apennine peninsula. In this connection, a conflict broke out between the Catholic Church and the secular authorities of the new Italy.

Alexis de Tocqueville, whose main ideas were to preserve the independent authority of the Pope, tried to achieve smooth internal reforms in the Papal States. He failed to achieve this, because only a few months after the beginning of the Foreign Minister's work, Barro's entire cabinet resigned because of another political scandal connected with the president's letter to her.

Cessation of public activity

On December 2, 1851, another coup d'état took place in France. President Louis Napoleon dissolved the parliament and received almost monarchical powers. A year later, the republic was abolished, and instead of it was announced the creation of the Second Empire. Alexis de Tocqueville, whose reports and publications warned about the danger of such a turn of events, found himself in the ranks of the latter who resisted the new state system. For disobeying the authorities, he was imprisoned in the prison of Vincennes. Soon Tocqueville was released, but he was finally torn from political activities.

The writer took advantage of the free time that had fallen on him and engaged in a historical study of the events of the great revolution of the late 18th century. The coup d'etat on December 2 reminded him of the 18th Brumaire coup, as a result of which Napoleon once received unlimited power. In this situation, the thinker blamed the wrong political system, in which the people, unused to political freedoms, received equal rights, including electoral rights.

"The Old Order and the Revolution"

After several years of work in 1856, Tocqueville published the first volume of the book "The Old Order and the Revolution," which eventually became his second most important work (after "Democracy in America"). The book was to consist of three parts, but death stopped the writer during his work on the second one.

The main object of Tocqueville's research was personal freedom. He considered the principle of non-interference of the state in the economy to be salutary and correct. The thinker did not see the people's freedom without the age-old enlightenment and education of people. Without it, no constitutional institutions will work, the author believed. He visually for the reader has traced the validity of this principle on an example of that same Great revolution in France of the end of the XVIII century.

Alexis de Tocqueville, whose clever phrases are still used in journalism, journalism or textbooks, considered freedom and equality to be the basis of democracy. At the same time, the peoples are more eager for the second, than for the first. Many people, Tocqueville noted, are even willing to sacrifice freedom for equality. With such sentiments, conditions arise for the establishment of despotism. Equality can isolate people, develop in them selfishness and particularism. All this was noted in his book by Alexis de Tocqueville.

The work "The Old Order and the Revolution" also included considerations of society's passion for profit. Consumers who are accustomed to consuming are ready to give the government new powers just to keep it calm, order and habitual way of life. So the power of the state penetrates deeper into public life, making the personality less independent. This means administrative centralization, which eradicates local self-government.

The tyranny of the masses

In the theses of the "Old Order and the Revolution," the theory of democracy, already begun in the author's first book, was developed. Alexis de Tocqueville briefly, but capaciously stated ideas, many of which formed the basis of modern political science. In the new work, the writer continued to study the phenomenon of the tyranny of the popular majority. It becomes more clear in the event that the state has to wage war.

During periods of prolonged bloodshed, there is a danger of the appearance of a commander who decided to take power in the country in his own hands. So, for example, was Napoleon. At the same time, the people tired of the war will gladly give the candidate for the status of a national leader all their freedoms in exchange for a promise of stability and future universal enrichment. Therefore, populist slogans have always been popular, even in spite of their objective unrealistic.

The only way to prevent despotism is freedom itself. It is she who brings people closer, weakening selfishness and taking away from material interests. The constitutional democratic system alone is not enough. An ideal state should be based on broad decentralization of power. Therefore, for a large country, the best way to organize is a federation. That's what Alexis de Tocqueville thought. He derived the concept of an ideal state from the historical mistakes that his own France, and many other countries from around the world, also allowed.

The benefits of decentralization

Only local self-government is able to save people from bureaucratic care and force them to engage in their own political education. An ideal state can not do without completely independent courts and the jurisdiction of the administration in case of its abuse. It is this institution that should receive the right to reject laws that are contrary to the constitution and the rights of citizens.

Alexis de Tocqueville, whose quotations quickly dispersed from the books of contemporaries and descendants, also advocated complete freedom of association and the press. At the same time, the guarantee that the state will not encroach on them is not institutions, but the customs and habits of people. If the population has a request for freedom, it will continue. In case of voluntary refusal of citizens from their rights, they will not be helped by any constitution. At the same time, we should not forget that this law has a reverse end. Institutes influence the gradual formation of customs and mores.

The Importance of Tocqueville's Work

Trying to understand how to write a book and how to make a report, Alexis de Tocqueville came to the next decision. In the work about America, he described in detail how the democracy became possible beyond the ocean and what contributed to it. In his work on France, the researcher dwelt on the reasons for the failure of attempts to establish and consolidate civil freedom.

The old order of Alexis de Tocqueville photographed the system that developed in his country in the 18th century with the merger of feudal society and royal absolutism. The government preserved the division of society into classes, seeing in it the pledge of its own preservation. The population was demarcated into strata, the members of which, as a rule, diligently weaned from other strata. The peasant was not at all like a city dweller, but a merchant for a nobleman-landowner. Gradual democratization and economic growth put an end to this. The revolution destroyed the old order, based a new one - built on the equality of people among themselves.

It is interesting that Tocqueville's work was recognized by contemporaries as the first neutral book on the events of the late 18th century in France. Prior to it, historians published research that defended this or that side of the revolutionary conflict.

It is because of this difference that the work of Alexis de Tocqueville, and indeed all his publications deserve the recognition of descendants and are preserved in historical memory. He did not try to justify the actions of monarchists or supporters of the republic - he wanted to find truth based on facts. Tocqueville died on April 16, 1859 in Cannes. His merits to science and society were evaluated by publishing a complete collection of works, many times withstood additional reprints.