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Tocqueville regarded the United states a country in which liberalism and
political equality were dominant. Sovereignty of the people had been
achieved, in contrast to European countries.
He was impressed with the the level of egality prevailing in society:
looking at the family as a reflection of society at large, but also relations
between wealthy people and their servants, even military organizations were
conceptualized egalitarian and liberally. Although subordination could be
observed, it was done only for a limited time and happened by free will,
which preserved the equality between two sides.
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As factors for the maintainance of liberal democracy Tocqueville named
three factors: special outer circumstances, the institutions, and political
culture. The first two were only marginally described. Political culture seemed
to be the more decisive point. Consequently he only noted a few observations
about the first two, such as the special economic conditions. Possession of
land was widely spread in the States and fostered liberalism. He noted
several ideas on institutions, for example how the federal system and
decentralization affected the way citizens paricipate in democracy. Political
culture, however, was considered to be highly relevant. Tocqueville noted the
consense over the republican structure in America, a strong sense of public
responsibility, although public and individual interests were partially
considered as affiliated. Religion can be included in the description of
political culture, as he saw its function in contributing to political order
more than the meanings of strong beliefs. The Frenchman admired the high
level of political education at the time, the common knowledge about public
affairs. As mentioned before, he deemed this factor a decisive prerequisite
for maintaining a working democratic system, since he had seen the democratic
experiment fail in France before largely because of a lack of responsible
citizenry.
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When examining the emphases that Tocqueville, but also Lieber chose to
document in their reports, one has to consider that both were biased in a way
that they were actively looking for certain aspects that were according to
their personal convictions, and also that they were dissatisfied with aspects
of the systems in their home-country, just like many other European
travellers and emigrants who came to the United States.
In France and Germany political discussion was preoccupied with the
controversy about election laws, freedom of press and (in France) the
educational system much more than with that about the civil right of free
formation of associations. In the Declaration of Civil and Human Rights of
1789 the latter is not even mentioned. The individualist and centralist
ideology which constituted the source of this neglect, explains some
differences to the American democratic system which formed later on.
See also: De Tocqueville's Notion of Democracy
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