Tocqueville on America’s “Reflective Patriotism” and Lessons for Civic Education

• In Event: Civic Learning on Campus: Bringing Political Science In Mini-Conference III: Political Theorists on Civic Education

Abstract

Tocqueville argues in Democracy in America (1835, 1840) that Americans have a new kind of “public spirit” – a “reflective patriotism” that arises as much from a citizen’s rational consideration of the self-interested benefits for self, family, and friends of being American and of undertaking self-government and civic service as it does from sentiments of love of native country, and pride in country. Tocqueville notes the strong contrast to Old World patriotism, which is entirely sentimental – of passionate attachment to native soil, history of one’s community, and tradition. One new characteristic of this reflective (also translated “considered” or “rational”) patriotism is that the Americans are argumentative. Their patriotism arises from a view of natural rights that the government should guarantee, thus they want to argue about the government and politics, the meaning of America, and with each other. That said, Tocqueville notes that the traditional, sentimental elements remain along with the new, rational ones: Americans are proud of America, testy when foreigners criticize America, and have genuine love of both their particular states and of the American federal republic as a real nation. In the 21st century crisis of American civic culture, which at least correlates with a crisis of civic education, Tocqueville’s view of a complex and enlightened, rational patriotism offers important resources for understanding why America’s civic culture is disintegrating into loss of confidence in all national institutions and professions, and into angry polarization; and why we also are suffering serious deficits of civic knowledge and of civic attachment or patriotism, especially among younger age cohorts. Tocqueville does qualify his main account of “reflective patriotism,” offered midway through Volume One of Democracy, in later sections of the work; he worries that rational self-interest is not an adequately strong basis for a sustainable patriotism, and that patriotism is necessary for sustaining any form of government. He also argues that America’s foundational religious culture is a crucial foundation for its rational patriotism; that the Americans may tell themselves they are patriotic and undertake civic duties out of rational self-interest but, in fact, they undertake altruistic, magnanimous acts as much as other peoples or cultures do. Tocqueville thus notes the Americans honor their rational, calculating philosophy more than themselves. One lesson for current debates about American civic culture and civic education is that, given our strong culture of free speech and argumentation, this account of a rational, reflective patriotism is an important resource for a theoretical understanding of what a healthy American civic culture could be as well as a practical resource for university educators, K-12 school educators, and others undertaking civic education. Second, his strong emphasis on patriotism – from the Introduction to Democracy through passages in Volume Two – itself offers a lesson to university educators, that patriotism is an important subject for public universities at least but arguably also for private universities and colleges; given that the latter claim to be educating leaders for American society, and receive in return substantial federal funding and public status. Third, the decline in religious beliefs among Americans – studied in Putnam & Campbell, American Grace (2012) and more recently in other works and reports – indicates a serious challenge for reviving a reflective patriotism, given Tocqueville’s view that religious belief is a crucial foundation for the rational patriotism and enlightened self-interest of the Americans. Their confidence that if they invest in civic duties and service for local, state, or national communities, in fact it will redound to the benefit of themselves, family, and friends, rests on ontological confidence from a metaphysical view of the human soul and the cosmos. This is why in Volume Two of Democracy Tocqueville urges statesmen and other leaders to indirectly encourage religious belief in the citizenry, to counteract the corrosive effects he can already see of materialism, rationalism, and individualism arising from America’s democratic, egalitarian, prosperity-driven culture. Given the calamitous decline in confidence in all American institutions and professions, and the recent struggle to recruit young people to serve in the American military, educators must more emphatically discuss such root causes of these problems. Fourth, several recent works, including Steven Smith, Reclaiming Patriotism (2021) and Richard Haass, The Bill of Obligations (2023), as well as the national report on K-12 civics and history education Educating for American Democracy (2021), provide confirmation of the salience of Tocqueville’s insights, and how research and curricula might be adjusted to redress the severe crises of civic culture and civics that America now faces.

Author

• Paul O. Carrese, Arizona State University