bridges vol. 9, April 2006 / Kalt's Corner
by Stefan Kalt

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At the beginning of Democracy in America, a study of America's early nineteenth-century egalitarian society written in 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville writes: "I thought that many would take it upon themselves to announce the new goods that equality promises to men, but that few would dare to point out from afar the perils with which it threatens them. It is therefore principally at those perils that I have directed my regard, and believing that I have uncovered them clearly I was not so cowardly as to be silent about them." While warmly supportive of democracy, Tocqueville contends that democratic-egalitarian society contains the seeds of its own unraveling. In modern times, he argues, democratic culture derives from two ideological sources: self-interest and individualism. Both have the potential to atomize society by undermining community. As I will suggest, certain technological advances made over the last century have exacerbated this potential.

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