Abstract
In his renowned Democracy in America, nineteenth-century French aristocrat and political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville offers an insightful account of the ways in which equality and self-interest well understood combine to make Americans independent and civic-minded and democracy a successful form of government. He distinguishes between self-interest well understood and individualism, the latter a form of extreme selfishness that threatens to destroy democracy by encouraging people to advance what they perceive as their interests at the expense of the community, and in ways that are counterproductive to the goals they seek and the community on which they depend. The chapter sets up the conceptual framework for the empirical chapters that follow.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Amartya Sen, “Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic Theory,” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 6, no. 4 (1977), pp. 317–344, attributes this innovation to F. Y. Edgeworth, Mathematical Psychics, published in 1881.
- 2.
Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (New York: Harper & Bros., 1942); Jane J. Mansbridge, “The Rise and Fall of Self-Interest in the Explanation of Political Life,” in Jane J. Mansbridge, ed., Beyond Self-Interest (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), pp. 3–24.
- 3.
T. W. Hutchison, “Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations,” Economic Journal, Vol. 86, no. 343 (1976), pp. 481–492.
- 4.
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, ed. D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982), especially Part III.
- 5.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, eds., Harvey C, Mansfield and Debra Winthrop (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), I, “Introduction,” pp. 3–15.
- 6.
John Stuart Mill, “M. de Tocqueville on Democracy in America,” in John Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, volume XVIII: Essays on Politics and Society (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963–91), pp. 47–90.
- 7.
Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. II, part 1, ch.1, p. 403. II, pt. 2, ch. 8, p. 501.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Ibid., I.2.9., p. 301. “I feel myself brought to believe that there will soon no longer be room in them [European nations] except for either democratic freedom or the tyranny of the Caesars.”
- 10.
Letter to Charles Stoffels, 21 April 1830, cited in Edward T. Gargan, Alexis de Tocqueville: The Critical Years, 1848–1851 (Washington, DC: Catholic University Press of America, 1955), p. 4, n. 7.
- 11.
Tocqueville, Democracy in America, I.2.9, p. 280.
- 12.
Ibid., I.2.6, p. 225.
- 13.
Ibid., II, 2.5, II, 4.7, pp. 489–492, 666–673.
- 14.
Ibid., II.2.5., p. 492. Mansfield, “Introduction,” p. lxxii, rightly accuses Tocqueville of exaggerating the importance of associations.
- 15.
Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Introduction, pp. 12–13, is fairly explicit about his goal.
- 16.
Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Régime and the French Revolution (New York: Random House, 1955), pp. 138–142, for his view of writers who value pure reason above political observation and experience.
- 17.
Tocqueville, Democracy in America, II.2.8, pp. 500–501.
- 18.
Ibid., I, “Introduction,” pp. 5–7.
- 19.
Tocqueville, Democracy in America, II, pt. 2, ch. 8, p. 501.
- 20.
Ibid., II.2.8, p. 502.
- 21.
Ibid., II.1.3, pp. 411–412.
- 22.
Ibid., II.2.1., p. 482.
- 23.
Ibid., Introduction, pp. 5–6; Sheldon Wolin, Tocqueville Between Two Worlds; The Making of a Political and Theoretical Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), pp. 141–143, for a discussion of this concept.
- 24.
Democracy in America, II.2.8, pp. 501–502.
- 25.
Ibid., II.2.8, p. 502.
- 26.
Ibid., II.3., 21, p. 609.
- 27.
Ibid., II.3.17, pp. 587–588.
- 28.
Ibid., II.2.10, p. 507.
- 29.
Ibid., II.2.14, pp. 513–514.
- 30.
Ibid., II.2.1, pp. 480–481.
- 31.
Ibid., II.1.2., pp. 409–410.
- 32.
Ibid., I, 2.2, p. 169.
- 33.
Ibid., II.1.2., pp. 409–410.
- 34.
Ibid., I.2.7, pp. 235–238.
- 35.
Ibid., II.4.6., p. 662.
- 36.
Wolin, Tocqueville Between Two, p. 569.
- 37.
Democracy in America, II.4.6, p. 663.
- 38.
Tocqueville, The Ancien Régime and the French Revolution, p. xi.
- 39.
Democracy in America, I.2.9, pp. 264–265.
- 40.
Ibid., p. 274.
- 41.
Ibid., I.1.2., pp. 40–41.
- 42.
Ibid., I.2.4., pp. 180–181; II.2.5, p. 489.
- 43.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Social Contract, trans. Maurice Cranston (New York: Penguin, 2006), Book 1, ch. 6, Book 11, ch. 3. The general interest refers to the common interest, and the will of all to the collection of private interests.
- 44.
Democracy in America, I.2.2., p. 169.
- 45.
Ibid., I.2.10, p. 383; II.4.7. Sharon R Krause, Liberalism Without Honor (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), for a more extensive discussion of this topic.
- 46.
Ibid., I.2.8, pp. 251–258.
- 47.
Ibid., II.3.18, pp. 589–599.
- 48.
Ibid., II.3.9, pp. 563–565.
- 49.
Letter to Reeve, 22 March 1837, Alexis de Tocqueville, Oeuvres complètes, ed. J-P Mayer 4th ed. (Paris: Gallimard, 1951– ), VI, no. 8, pp. 37–38.
- 50.
Richard Ned Lebow, Tragic Vision of Politics: Ethics, Interests and Orders (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 26–34, 284–304, for an elaboration of this theme.
- 51.
Democracy in America, II.2.1, p. 482.
- 52.
Ibid., I.2.5, p. 188, I.2.2.
- 53.
Ibid., I.2.2.
- 54.
Ibid., II.2.20, pp. 530–532.
- 55.
Ibid., II.4.6., p. 662.
- 56.
Quoted in George Wilson Pierson, Tocqueville in America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), p. 751.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lebow, R.N. (2018). Self-Interest. In: The Politics and Business of Self-Interest from Tocqueville to Trump. International Political Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68569-4_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68569-4_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68568-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68569-4
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)