Democracy in America

Relations between servants and employers are also unique in the United States. In aristocracies the servants of elites take on some of their values and are attached to their privilege. In democratic America there is no elite status attached to serving any particular person, so the relationship is entirely one of business and mutual obligation. These relationships are more tumultuous during transition periods.

A similar pragmatism dominates in agriculture, though there are fewer tenant farmers in the United States than in Europe. Tocqueville describes, “In aristocracies, farm rents are discharged not only in money, but in respect, affection, and services. In democratic countries, they are paid only in money” (554). The eroding bond between tenant farmer and landlord is a harbinger of revolution. Raising rents in Europe may be momentarily advantageous but will have serious long-term consequences for the system’s stability.

Tocqueville treats aristocratic systems as dependent on emotional bonds as much as practical ones; he attributes the rise of democracy as much to changes in sentiments as in economics. His nostalgia is tempered by his growing sense that democracy is inevitable, though the melancholy undertone is readily apparent.

Tocqueville further points out that wages tend to rise with social equality, which gives workers more power than they held under aristocracies.