We have earlier blogged about Alexis de Toqueville, the 19th century French tourist who nailed the American character and predicted much of the American future. Read what my colleague Mark Mitchell says about how de Toqueville analyzes the American economic proclivities, with relevance for what we are going through today. I’ll quote one paragraph and let you link to the rest. From Tocqueville’s Diagnosis | Front Porch Republic:
Tocqueville argues that in ages of democracy, people will, above all else, be drawn to commerce. He predicts that this commercial age will be characterized by many complicated influences, and that “it is impossible to foresee in advance the obstacles that can arise.” Yet, arise they will and because of the complexity of the relations and the sheer numbers of people involved, “at the least shock that [economic] affairs experience…all particular fortunes stumble at the same time and the state totters.” Such a crisis, he claims, is the “endemic malady” of any democratic nation. “One can render it less dangerous, but not cure it, because it is due not to an accident, but to the very temperament of these peoples.”
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