The Power and Import of Civil Associations
Citizenship and Civic Life
The unique contribution of the US to democratic practice
Historically, globally
Tocqueville, ÒAmericans are forever forming associationsÓ
See beginning of Chapter XII
The citizen of the United States is taught
from infancy to rely upon his own exertions in order to resist the evils and
the difficulties of life; he looks upon the social authority with an eye of
mistrust and anxiety, and he claims it assistance only when he is unable to do
without it. This habit may be
traced even in the schools, where the children in their games are wont to
submit to rules which they have themselves established,
and to punish misdemeanors which they have themselves defined.
MadisonÕs defense of the Òalleged mischiefs of factionÓ
Aside from being a basic liberty, association is vital to democracy because:
Competition among factions is a check on majority tyranny
Association as the means for creating a Òmarketplace of ideasÓ
It is through association that people develop a sense of their common interest, the common good
Thus they learn to surrender their own will to that of all the rest and
to make their own exertions subordinate to the common impulse, things which it
is not less necessary to know in civil than in political assocations. Political associations may therefore be
considered large free schools, where all the members of the community go to
learn the general theory of association.
It helps them arrive at Òself interest properly understood.Ó
Has this in common with Dewey; associational life as the laboratories of democracy
It is experiential – canÕt just be taught, you must learn it by doing it.
Citizens who are individually powerless do not very clearly anticipate
the strength that they may acquire by uniting together; it must be shown to
them in order to be understood.
It becomes habitual – so when you really need it, the habit is there
The greater the multiplicity of small affairs, the more do men, even
without knowing it, acquire the facility in prosecuting great undertakings in
common.
Once met, they can meet again.
Thus, political life
makes the love and practice of association more general; it imparts a desire of
union and teaches the means of combination to numbers of men who otherwise
would have always lived apart
On the need for complete freedom to form all kinds of associations:
When some kinds of associations are
prohibited and others allowed, it is difficult to distinguish the former from
the latter. In this state of doubt
men abstain from them altogether, and a sort of public opinion passes current which tends to cause any association whatsoever to
be regarded as a bold and almost an illicit enterprise.
**Association develops norms of trust and reciprocity, which lead to interdependence among citizens as well as independence from government
But these governments (in Europe which try to control or stifle
political associations) do not attend to the fact that political associations
tend amazingly to multiply and facilitate those of a civil character, and that
in avoiding a dangerous evil they deprive themselves of an efficacious remedy
(118, end of paragraph 2)
In the political associations the Americans, of all conditions, minds,
and ages, daily acquire a general taste for association and grow accustomed to
the use of it. There they
meet together in large numers, they converse, they
listen to one another, and they are mutually stimulated to all sorts of
undertakings. They afterwards
transfer to civil life the notions they have thus acquired and make them
subservient to a thousand purposes.
Thus it is by the enjoyment of a dangerous freedom that the Americans
learn the art of rendering the dangers of freedom less formidable (119, first paragraph).
Other quote from Tocqueville:
Easier to draw together a multitude of people than a few.
Do you agree? Why or why not?
What does this say about human nature?
Is American nature in contrast to ÒhumanÓ nature? French nature? Russian nature?
Think of political culture here
A disposition to civic life