The first representative of liberalism to comprehend the meaning and importance of democracy was Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859). His work “Democracy in America” became widely known and by 1850 had been published in 13 editions. He took an active part in public and political life, was a member of parliament, and minister of foreign affairs. During the reign of Napoleon III, he was forced to emigrate. In 1856, he published his book The Ancient Order (Old Order) and the Revolution.
“Democracy in America is at once an empirical description of the functioning of American democracy, a collection of general thoughts on the functioning of the state, and an understanding of the state and legal past of European countries. In this work, Tocqueville formulated a theory of democracy, outlined his views on such key issues as the relationship between equality and freedom and the existence of a contradiction between them. The main idea of the work is to recognize the historical inevitability of the decline of the aristocracy and the constant and steady movement towards freedom and democracy. Understanding equality as democracy, he notes: “Despite all its shortcomings, the rule of democracy is still more capable than any other of promoting the prosperity… of society.” At the same time, Tocqueville paid great attention to the organization of state power, which is especially important in a democracy. In particular, analyzing the American state and legal system, he emphasized the importance of the “system of checks and balances” and the theory of separation of powers, which were enshrined in the American Constitution.
Unlike his predecessors, who used the concept of “tyranny of the majority” to criticize democratic laws, Tocqueville saw the “tyrannical” manifestation of American democracy primarily in the domination of public opinion. This opinion, due to the desire of everyone to gain the support of other citizens in a democracy, inevitably becomes the opinion of the masses and therefore has a tremendous coercive power that cannot be compared to any laws.
Tocqueville is characterized by the opposition of equality and freedom. He believed that in democratic republics, equality is a greater social value than freedom. While the need for freedom is vital for the few, equality makes everyone happy. Therefore, although democratic societies strive for freedom, this desire is subordinated to a more persistent and widespread desire for equality, for which they are ultimately willing to give up freedom. “They want equality with freedom, but if this is not available to them, they want it even in slavery. They will tolerate poverty, oppression, barbarism, but they will not tolerate aristocracy,” Tocqueville emphasized.
Tocqueville’s views on the state system or, more precisely, on the problem of centralization and decentralization are important. In his work Ancient Order and Revolution, he emphasized that centralization is a factor that paralyzes all social life. That is why, both during the period of absolutism and after the revolution, the main obstacle to the establishment of freedom and democracy was centralization, the concentration of all issues of public life in the competence of the central government.
As an advocate of democracy and freedom, the thinker was convinced that they were a value in themselves. People who see freedom as a means of achieving material wealth can never retain it for long. According to Tocqueville, the desire for freedom is not a characteristic of all peoples, but only of those who are created for it, who love freedom not only for the material benefits it gives them, but see it as a precious and necessary good, the loss of which is unbearable and the possession of which is the highest reward. True love for freedom is inherent in a few people – it is a property of people of a special, great soul who find the highest pleasure, according to Tocqueville, in the right to speak, act, and breathe without oppression, obeying only God and the law.