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empire building bears the mark of a Machiavellian raison d’état. It is
a cause which engages the political nation as a whole, with the aim to
prevent the political community, viz. France, from being dominated by
other major (colonial) powers. [6] Most importantly, this position is not
even in contradiction with Tocqueville’s overall theory of freedom. On
the contrary, his support of the French empire building is actually in
line with his general political thought. And again, the essence of that
political thought is republican to the extent that is stresses more the
importance of the absence of arbitrary power rather than the prevention
of interference into the individual’s private sphere.
Tocqueville’s theory of freedom starts with a basic appreciation
of Democratic society, which he defines by a simple expression – “the
equality of conditions.” Indeed, in Tocqueville, Democracy and societal
equality of conditions largely coincide. They basically indicate a
fundamental openness of society as opposed to the closed hierarchy
in feudal societies. Yet along with these social changes come new
important challenges to freedom. The crucial stake here, according to
Tocqueville, is that people within Democracy instinctively “love equality
more than freedom.” (Tocqueville 2000, 52) The subtext is more clear
than this expression: Democratic society sees as much, or even more,
opportunity for instituting despotism than realizing freedom.
The love of equality in Democracy goes hand in hand with the fact
that society consists of individuals rather than of organic social bodies
that once exist in feudal times. The political ramification of this new social
fact is that, given the dismissal of the former, feudal intermediary bodies,
state power faces but little resistance from the atomized individuals.
What is ensuing, Tocqueville observes, is the compelling and dangerous
tendency in Democracy of state centralization. In Tocqueville’s view,
here lie the germs of a new state of slavery, since the entire populace
now becomes dependent upon a powerful, centralized state apparatus.
Tocqueville depicts vividly the consequences of this over-centralization,
which happens, at the time, to occur more in Europe than America:
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ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE’S
NOTION OF POLITICAL
FREEDOM
Demin Duan
6
About the issue of empire and colonialism in Tocqueville, see Cheryl B. Welch, “Colonial
Violence and the Rhetoric of Evasion: Tocqueville on Algeria.” Political Theory. 2003,
Vol. 31, Nr. 2, April: 235-264. Jennifer Pitts, “Empire and Democracy: Tocqueville and the
Algeria Question.” The Journal of Political Philosophy. 2000, Vol. 8, Nr. 3: 295-318. Demin
Duan, “Reconsidering Tocqueville’s Imperialism.” Ethical Perspectives. 2010, Vol. 17.