particular associations as guilty of dividing what should
remain united, modern democracy is pluralistic and lives
on the existence, the multiplicity and the vigour of
intermediate associations. De Tocqueville was struck both
by the equality of conditions and by the tendency of
members of American society to join associations in order
to promote the public good, so that 'independently of the
permanent associations created by law in the name of the
community, the city and the country, there also existed a
host of others which owed their existence and development
to the will of individuals' (1835-40). And associationism
became a new criterion (new compared to the traditional
criteria which focused exclusively on the number of rulers)
for distinguishing between democratic and non-democratic
societies as is shown by this surprisingly incisive passage:
In aristocratic society men have no need to unite in order to act
because they are already firmly held together. Every rich and
powerful citizen is like the head of a permanent and strong
association which includes everybody dependent on him and
whom he bids carry out his plans. In democracies where all
citizens are independent and inefficient, they can do hardly
anything alone and no one is able to oblige his peers to cooperate.
If they do not learn to help each other freely, they all fall into
helplessness, (de Tocqueville 1835-40)
particular associations as guilty of dividing what should
remain united, modern democracy is pluralistic and lives
on the existence, the multiplicity and the vigour of
intermediate associations. De Tocqueville was struck both
by the equality of conditions and by the tendency of
members of American society to join associations in order
to promote the public good, so that 'independently of the
permanent associations created by law in the name of the
community, the city and the country, there also existed a
host of others which owed their existence and development
to the will of individuals' (1835-40). And associationism
became a new criterion (new compared to the traditional
criteria which focused exclusively on the number of rulers)
for distinguishing between democratic and non-democratic
societies as is shown by this surprisingly incisive passage:
In aristocratic society men have no need to unite in order to act
because they are already firmly held together. Every rich and
powerful citizen is like the head of a permanent and strong
association which includes everybody dependent on him and
whom he bids carry out his plans. In democracies where all
citizens are independent and inefficient, they can do hardly
anything alone and no one is able to oblige his peers to cooperate.
If they do not learn to help each other freely, they all fall into
helplessness, (de Tocqueville 1835-40)
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