Excerpt from Democracy in America
by Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835
Once a people begins to interfere with the voting qualification, one can be sure
that sooner or later it will abolish it altogether. That is one of the most
invariable rules of social behavior. The further the limit of voting rights
is extended, the stronger is the need felt to spread them still wider, for
after each new concession the forces of democracy are strengthened, and its
demands increase with the augmented power. The ambition of those left below
the qualifying limit increases in proportion to the number of those above it.
Finally the exception becomes the rule; concessions follow one another without
interruption, and there is no halting place until universal suffrage has been
attained...
IN AMERICA the people appoint the legislative and the executive power and
furnish the jurors who punish all infractions of the laws. The institutions
are democratic, not only in their principle, but in all their consequences;
and the people elect their representatives directly, and for the most part
annually, in order to ensure their dependence. The people are therefore the
real directing power; and although the form of government is representative,
it is evident that the opinions, the prejudices, the interests, and even the
passions of the people are hindered by no permanent obstacles from exercising
a perpetual influence on the daily conduct of affairs. In the United States
the majority governs in the name of the people, as is the case in all countries
in which the people are supreme. This majority is principally composed of peaceable
citizens, who, either by inclination or by interest, sincerely wish the welfare
of their country. But they are surrounded by the incessant agitation of parties,
who attempt to gain their cooperation and support...
In the United States, except slaves, servants, and paupers supported by the
townships, there is no class of persons who do not exercise the elective
franchise and who do not indirectly contribute to make the laws. Those
who wish to attack the laws must consequently either change the opinion of the nation or trample
upon its decision.
A second reason, which is still more direct and weighty, may be adduced:
in the United States everyone is personally interested in enforcing the obedience
of the whole community to the law; for as the minority may shortly rally
the
majority to its principles, it is interested in professing that respect for
the decrees of the legislator which it may soon have occasion to claim for
its own. However irksome an enactment may be, the citizen of the United States
complies with it, not only because it is the work of the majority, but because
it is his own, and he regards it as a contract to which he is himself a party.
In the United States, then, that numerous and turbulent multitude does not
exist who, regarding the law as their natural enemy, look upon it with fear
and distrust. It is impossible, on the contrary, not to perceive that all
classes display the utmost reliance upon the legislation of their country
and are attached
to it by a kind of parental affection.
I am wrong, however, in saying all classes; for as in America the European
scale of authority is inverted, there the wealthy are placed in a position
analogous to that of the poor in the Old World, and it is the opulent classes
who frequently look upon law with suspicion. I have already observed that
the advantage of democracy is not, as has been sometimes asserted, that it
protects the interests of all, but simply that it protects those of the majority.
In the United States, where the poor rule, the rich have always had something
to fear from the abuse of their power. This natural anxiety of the rich may produce
a secret dissatisfaction, but society is not disturbed by it, for the same
reason that withholds the confidence of the rich from the legislative authority
makes them obey its mandates: their wealth, which prevents them from making
the law, prevents them from withstanding it. Among civilized nations, only
those who have nothing to lose ever revolt; and if the laws of a democracy
are not always worthy of respect, they are always respected; for those who
usually infringe the laws cannot fail to obey those which they have themselves
made and by which they are benefited; while the citizens who might be interested
in their infraction are induced, by their character and station, to submit
to the decisions of the legislature, whatever they may be. Besides, the people
in America obey the law, not only because it is their own work, but because
it may be changed if it is harmful; a law is observed because, first, it
is a self-imposed evil, and, secondly, it is an evil of transient duration.