Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect

401 Pages·2009·1.39 MB·English

by  Paul Anthony Rahe

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S D
OFT ESPOTISM,
D D
EMOCRACY’S RIFT
Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville & The Modern Prospect
Paul A. Rahe
Yale University Press
New Haven & London
SOFT DESPOTISM, DEMOCRACY’S DRIFT
This page intentionally left blank
S D
OFT ESPOTISM,
D D
EMOCRACY’S RIFT
Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville & The Modern Prospect
Paul A. Rahe
Yale University Press
New Haven & London
Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund.
Copyright © 2009 by Paul Anthony Rahe. All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form
(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and ex-
cept by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Set in Electra and Trajan types by The Composing Room of Michigan, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Rahe, Paul Anthony.
Soft despotism, democracy’s drift : Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and
the modern prospect / Paul A. Rahe.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-14492-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Democracy. 2. Republicanism.
3. Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, baron de, 1689–1755. 4. Tocqueville, Alexis de,
1805–1859. 5. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1712–1778. I. Title.
JC423.R246 2009
321.8—dc22
2008039281
ISBN 978-0-300-16423-7 (pbk.)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Laura T. Rahe
I would like to imagine with what new traits despotism could be produced in the
world. I see an innumerable multitude of men, alike and equal, who turn about
without repose in order to procure for themselves petty and vulgar pleasures with
which they fill their souls. Each of them, withdrawn apart, is a virtual stranger, un-
aware of the fate of the others: his children and his particular friends form for him
the entirety of the human race; as for his fellow citizens, he is beside them but he
sees them not; he touches them and senses them not; he exists only in himself and
for himself alone, and, if he still has a family, one could say at least that he no
longer has a fatherland.
Over these is elevated an immense, tutelary power, which takes sole charge of
assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate. It is absolute, attentive to
detail, regular, provident, and gentle. It would resemble the paternal power if, like
that power, it had as its object to prepare men for manhood, but it seeks, to the con-
trary, to keep them irrevocably fixed in childhood; it loves the fact that the citizens
enjoy themselves provided that they dream solely of their own enjoyment. It works
willingly for their happiness, but it wishes to be the only agent and the sole arbiter
of that happiness. It provides for their security, foresees and supplies their needs,
guides them in the principal affairs, directs their industry, regulates their testa-
ments, divides their inheritances....
After having taken each individual in this fashion by turns into its powerful
hands, and after having kneaded him in accord with its desires, the sovereign ex-
tends its arms about the society as a whole; it covers its surface with a network of
petty regulations—complicated, minute, and uniform—through which even the
most original minds and the most vigorous souls know not how to make their way
past the crowd and emerge into the light of day. It does not break wills; it softens
them, bends them, and directs them; rarely does it force one to act, but it con-
stantly opposes itself to one’s acting on one’s own; it does not destroy, it prevents
things from being born; it does not tyrannize, it gets in the way: it curtails, it ener-
vates, it extinguishes, it stupefies, and finally it reduces each nation to nothing
more than a herd of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the
shepherd.
—Alexis de Tocqueville
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
List of Abbreviations xix
Book One. The Modern Republic Examined
Preface, 3
one Principles, 11
two Uneasiness, 32
Book Two. The Modern Republic Revisited
Preface, 63
one The Enlightenment Indicted, 75
two Sociability as a Malady, 96
three Citizenship as a Remedy, 116
Book Three. The Democratic Republic Considered
Preface, 143
one Democratic Despotism, 154
vii