Tocqueville’s Voyages. Группа авторов

character remained vague and elusive. But in an early version of the manuscript of Democracy, he offered a tentative definition.

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      There is indeed in the bent of the ideas and tastes of a people a hidden force that struggles with advantage against revolutions and time. This intellectual physiognomy of nations, which is called their character, is found throughout all the centuries of their history and amid the innumerable changes that take place in the social state, beliefs and laws. A strange thing! What is least perceptible and most difficult to define among a people is at the same time what you find most enduring among them.39

      For him, national character really meant the mores of a particular nation.

      What was the bent of the ideas and tastes, or the intellectual physiognomy of the Americans? Among the features of the American character that Tocqueville noted and praised in his travel notes and in the working papers and text of Democracy were:

       Religious faith and a high regard for religion;

       Good morals and a positive attitude toward women;

       Abundant energy, hard work, and relentless activity;

       Practical political experience and general knowledge and intelligence;

       Good sense and steadiness of habits or “habits of restraint”;

       Fixity of certain fundamental principles;

       Public spirit and a drive to participate in public life;

       A sentiment or feeling of equality with fellow citizens;

       Respect for law and for the rights of others;

       Willingness to help others, or a benevolent attitude; and

       An intelligent and refined egoism, or a remarkably different understanding of how private and public interest were linked.

      Among American traits that Tocqueville observed and criticized were:

       Love of money and passion for wealth and material well-being;

       Commercial passions and habits of business;

       Greediness to acquire material goods and to dominate the continent;

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       Lack of general ideas and interest in practice rather than theory;

       Restlessness and constant movement;

       Tendency to follow momentary passions;

       Passion for change and expectation of constant improvement;

       Nearly universal ambition and drive to advance in society;

       Exaggerated seriousness or coldness;

       Inability to enjoy life;

       Tendency to conform to the majority and to follow public opinion;

       Discontent and frustration despite prosperity and success;

       Envy;

       Deep anxiety; insecurity about status and well-being;

       National self-absorption and pride;

       Racist attitudes toward blacks and Native Americans; and

       Fanatical spiritualism (at times).

      Even these two short lists underscore several significant features of Tocqueville’s portrait of the American character. Remarkably, Tocqueville’s portrayal began to emerge quickly during the first days of his American journey and can be found throughout the working papers and final text of the 1835 Democracy. Yet his depiction is complex and extraordinarily perceptive, containing both high praise and severe criticism. It particularly highlights certain fundamental American traits, such as religious faith, practical political experience, constant activity, and the ability to understand private and public interests in a new way.

      But Tocqueville’s portrait is also limited in several respects. First, it focuses on the Anglo-American man; women and the other two races of North America are largely considered apart. Second, it is a description even more specifically of the Northerner (even of the New England Yankee); in the pages of Democracy, Tocqueville offers us a separate picture of the Southerner that differs in several important ways from the general image. Third, and finally, we should note that much of his portrayal, especially the features that he most disliked, is a description of middle-class habits and characteristics. To some extent, Tocqueville saw the Americans through the preexisting lens of his profoundly unfavorable conception of the middle class and of middle-class society.

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      Among Tocqueville’s catalog of American characteristics, the psychological features offer arguably the most brilliant insights of his analysis. Again we need to remember that these psychological traits as well are already present in Tocqueville’s travel notes and in the drafts and manuscripts of the 1835 Democracy. His journey notebooks, for example, describe an American who has a profound sentiment or feeling of equality with his fellows.40 In the working papers of the 1835 portion of Democracy, Tocqueville observes that, in a society without the traditional markers of caste and class, the Anglo-American is constantly anxious about his status in society, and in a society where the primary distinction is wealth, he is constantly worried about his material well-being.41

      Tocqueville also describes an American who, despite great prosperity, remains restless and profoundly disappointed because the two key goals that he is always pursuing inevitably elude him. Full equality can never be attained. Paradoxically, as equality comes closer, the small remaining inequalities become more irritating and frustrating. The passion for equality can never be satisfied.42 Tocqueville even remarks on a pervasive envy and on what he calls the principle of “relative justice,” which means that small inequalities among those most similar to you are harder to endure than the vast inequalities between castes or classes.43 A satisfying material success also eludes the American; he always wants more, and ultimately he runs out of the time needed to acquire all that he desires.44

      Despite the sad realization that his desires would never be fully achieved, the American, according to Tocqueville, lives with his eyes fixed on a better tomorrow; he assumes that change is improvement and expects the future to surpass the present.45 This assumption also

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      feeds both his discontent with his current situation and his unrelenting drive forward.

      Out of this image of the Anglo-American came Tocqueville’s parallel portrait of the “democratic man.” Certain striking differences between his depiction of the American and that of the “democratic man” must be noted, however, especially the latter’s lack of sufficient religious faith to counterbalance materialistic passions and his impulse to withdraw from public life (individualism). These twin tendencies of “democratic man” toward unchecked or unrestrained materialism and toward noninvolvement or nonparticipation in civic affairs were, for Tocqueville, two of the most troubling features of the democratic character.

      But Tocqueville’s psychological sketch of “democratic man” (fully presented in 1840) closely mirrored his portrayal of the Anglo-American (already apparent between 1831 and 1835). The democratic psychology was marked by the same envy, anxiety, frustration, discontent, and restlessness that Tocqueville had observed among the Americans.

      Another significant question remains. How is the character of “democratic man” related more broadly to the theme of democratic dangers and remedies? Tocqueville’s sketch of the democratic character is deeply critical. The impulses and psychological traits of “democratic man” exacerbate the democratic threats that so worried Tocqueville, especially the dangers of materialism and individualism that have been discussed above.

      If, however, the democratic character largely heightened Tocqueville’s worries, he also found among American characteristics some features of democratic mores that served—at least