Democracy in America

Relations between servants and employers are also unique in the United States. In aristocracies the servants of elites take on some of their values and are attached to their privilege. In democratic America there is no elite status attached to serving any particular person, so the relationship is entirely one of business and mutual obligation. These relationships are more tumultuous during transition periods.

A similar pragmatism dominates in agriculture, though there are fewer tenant farmers in the United States than in Europe. Tocqueville describes, “In aristocracies, farm rents are discharged not only in money, but in respect, affection, and services. In democratic countries, they are paid only in money” (554). The eroding bond between tenant farmer and landlord is a harbinger of revolution. Raising rents in Europe may be momentarily advantageous but will have serious long-term consequences for the system’s stability.

Tocqueville treats aristocratic systems as dependent on emotional bonds as much as practical ones; he attributes the rise of democracy as much to changes in sentiments as in economics. His nostalgia is tempered by his growing sense that democracy is inevitable, though the melancholy undertone is readily apparent.

Tocqueville further points out that wages tend to rise with social equality, which gives workers more power than they held under aristocracies. This is not true for the new enterprises Tocqueville calls “great industries,” where a few elites own the enterprise and have many workers who are poorly paid and not especially skilled (557). They have no easy redress, which Tocqueville finds distressing, saying, “They have long been impoverished by oppression, and they are easier to oppress as they become poorer. It is a vicious circle they can in no way escape” (557). Tocqueville calls for legislative action to prevent this from becoming a real crisis. While Tocqueville is in no way a socialist, given his nostalgia for aristocracy, he is concerned about fair labor and working conditions as part of his belief in the dignity of the individual.