That The Notions Of Democratic Nations On Government Are Naturally Favorable To The Concentration Of Power- 11/11/2010

 [Continuing with De Tocqueville and my pretrial detention journal. sch]

The rallying cry for the 2010 Republicans was that the Democrats were concentrating power in Washington, DC.

James Madison worried about the power of factions taking power (see The Federalist No. 10). De Tocqueville takes this into a broader discussion. I have written on Federalist 10, and reading this chapter of de Tocqueville has me thinking the original theory underlying the original federal Constitution has gone bust.

I start with Indiana's Constitution, written in 1851, and not the federal constitution. Indiana's Constitution forbids special and local legislation. The state Bill of Rights also forbids any unequal rights, such as a monopoly. I think here are items that could be profitably added to the federal constitution.

The very next notion to that of a sole and central power, which presents itself to the minds of men in the ages of equality, is the notion of uniformity of legislation. As every man sees that he differs but little from those about him, he cannot understand why a rule which is applicable to one man should not be equally applicable to all others. Hence the slightest privileges are repugnant to his reason; the faintest dissimilarities in the political institutions of the same people offend him, and uniformity of legislation appears to him to be the first condition of good government. I find, on the contrary, that this same notion of a uniform rule, equally binding on all the members of the community, was almost unknown to the human mind in aristocratic ages; it was either never entertained, or it was rejected. These contrary tendencies of opinion ultimately turn on either side to such blind instincts and such ungovernable habits that they still direct the actions of men, in spite of particular exceptions. Notwithstanding the immense variety of conditions in the Middle Ages, a certain number of persons existed at that period in precisely similar circumstances; but this did not prevent the laws then in force from assigning to each of them distinct duties and different rights. On the contrary, at the present time all the powers of government are exerted to impose the same customs and the same laws on populations which have as yet but few points of resemblance. As the conditions of men become equal amongst a people, individuals seem of less importance, and society of greater dimensions; or rather, every citizen, being assimilated to all the rest, is lost in the crowd, and nothing stands conspicuous but the great and imposing image of the people at large. This naturally gives the men of democratic periods a lofty opinion of the privileges of society, and a very humble notion of the rights of individuals; they are ready to admit that the interests of the former are everything, and those of the latter nothing. They are willing to acknowledge that the power which represents the community has far more information and wisdom than any of the members of that community; and that it is the duty, as well as the right, of that power to guide as well as govern each private citizen.

 Chapter II: That The Notions Of Democratic Nations On Government Are Naturally Favorable To The Concentration Of Power, Democracy in America

The federal Constitution does not forbid special or local legislation. This is how political pork barrels are created. The Fourteenth Amendment and the Commerce Clause give a wide swath of power to a federal government backed by the money in the U.S. Treasury.

Note in the above quotation the slighting of individual rights and individualism. [When did Emerson write "Self Reliance"? Google informs me the date was 1841; de Tocqueville visited America. sch 8/16/2024.] Credit lawyers and the ACLU for elevating individual rights. [And Ralph Waldo Emerson. sch 8/16/2024.] In the 19th Century, politics protected civil rights rather than the judiciary. Our civil rights depend on the courts. [I did not foresee Dobbs, but these things happen. sch 8/16/2024.] 

I think every American political party seeks something from the federal government. I expect the Tea Party will want the federal government to pay for something. [I think my expectations were not met here; if the Tea Party wanted anything it was for the federal government to force the dissenting sections of the country to follow their views. This is certainly true of MAGA Republicans. sch 8/16/24.] What de Tocqueville wrote of France in his time sounds like America today:

In France, where the revolution of which I am speaking has gone further than in any other European country, these opinions have got complete hold of the public mind. If we listen attentively to the language of the various parties in France, we shall find that there is not one which has not adopted them. Most of these parties censure the conduct of the government, but they all hold that the government ought perpetually to act and interfere in everything that is done. Even those which are most at variance are nevertheless agreed upon this head. The unity, the ubiquity, the omnipotence of the supreme power, and the uniformity of its rules, constitute the principal characteristics of all the political systems which have been put forward in our age. They recur even in the wildest visions of political regeneration: the human mind pursues them in its dreams. If these notions spontaneously arise in the minds of private individuals, they suggest themselves still more forcibly to the minds of princes. Whilst the ancient fabric of European society is altered and dissolved, sovereigns acquire new conceptions of their opportunities and their duties; they learn for the first time that the central power which they represent may and ought to administer by its own agency, and on a uniform plan, all the concerns of the whole community. This opinion, which, I will venture to say, was never conceived before our time by the monarchs of Europe, now sinks deeply into the minds of kings, and abides there amidst all the agitation of more unsettled thoughts.

America divides its governments - between federal and state; between executive, legislative, and judicial branches. As I wrote above, money and the federal Treasury and the Constitution tipped the balance toward the federal government. States were to have general powers only limited by the federal Constitution and the federal government was limited to the purposes stated in the Constitution. We have pushed the federal government towards more of a general, national government without any of the restraints placed on a general government.

The next chapter pursues how we willingly concentrate power in government because that is the democratic impulse.

sch

[What I did not imagine - did anyone tht was not considered a wingnut - was the ersasure of separated powers to serve the ends of a Chief Executive. Then along came Donald J. Trump whose  command of the Republican Party has made its legislative members subservient to him, and has made the Supreme Court compliant to his ambitions. sch 8/16/2024]