Alexis de Tocqueville and the American Character: The Problem of Reconciling Excellence and Consent

Although Tocqueville was deeply concerned about the adverse consequences of democratic equality and the tyranny of the majority, he nonethless believed that the character of the American people-reinforced by America's customs, laws, circumstances, constitutional heritage, and favorable geography-would help Americans to achieve a decent, liberal, constitutional polity. Culturally, however, Americans were deficient in reconciling excellence and consent. Less friendly critics have argued that a democracy cannot reconcile excellence and consent. It is, however, possible to move beyond Tocqueville's qualified confidence in American democracy, and his reservations about the ability of Americans to reconcile excellence and consent, by arguing that there is a fundamental concord between excellence and consent, that there is significant popular acceptance and practice of excellence in a democracy, and that creative democratic leadership can advance excellence in a democratic society. Copyright , Oxford University Press.