Democracy in America

Tocqueville notes that while this might seem surprising to some observers, Catholicism is growing in influence and popularity, including among Americans. Tocqueville considers this explicable because humans in democratic ages crave centralization. He asserts, “If they consent to submit to an authority like this, they at least want it to be one and uniform; religious powers that do not all end at one and the same center naturally shock their intelligence” (424).

While Tocqueville admits that some loss of faith will happen in democratic populations, he thinks that the large majority will eventually embrace Catholicism. It seems difficult to reconcile that with the claims in Volume 1 that Americans are not interested in distant central governments and embrace their states above federal structures, though this claim is somewhat consistent with Tocqueville’s belief that humans in democratic ages seek general truths.

Tocqueville makes a similar argument for why democratic peoples will be drawn to pantheism. This continuing search for unity and wholeness leads to a quest for “a philosophic system according to which the things material and immaterial, visible and invisible that the world includes are considered as no more than diverse parts of an immense being which alone remains eternal in the midst of the continual change and incessant transformation of all that composes it” (426). Tocqueville essentially argues that pantheism is a belief that humans, together with all life, are but parts of a unified God, the sole constant in the universe. Tocqueville does not approve of this. Consistent with his earlier preference for Christianity, he suggests that “all men should unite and do combat against it” (426).

Aristocracies, with their social hierarchies and clearly defined roles, have more limited ideas about perfection and progress. Because of these beliefs and social realities, “they confine it in advance within certain impassable limits” (427). The changes produced in society as people become more equal serve to demonstrate that self-perfection is achievable. Observation of circumstances is enough to prove this, as Tocqueville states, an observer sees “others improve his lot, and he concludes from this that man in general is endowed with the indefinite faculty of perfecting himself” (427).