De la démocratie en Amérique / Democracy in America — Volume 1 (v1 rescore)

I hold it to be an impious and an execrable maxim that, politically speaking, a people has a right to do whatsoever it pleases, and yet I have asserted that all authority originates in the will of the majority. Am I then, in contradiction with myself? A general law—which bears the name of Justice—has been made and sanctioned, not only by a majority of this or that people, but by a majority of mankind. The rights of every people are consequently confined within the limits of what is just. A nation may be considered in the light of a jury which is empowered to represent society at large, and to apply the great and general law of justice. Ought such a jury, which represents society, to have more power than the society in which the laws it applies originate? When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right which the majority has of commanding, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind. It has been asserted that a people can never entirely outstep the boundaries of justice and of reason in those affairs which are more peculiarly its own, and that consequently, full power may fearlessly be given to the majority by which it is represented. But this language is that of a slave.

主权在民 ≠ 主权在人类(Tocqueville 的关键命题)→ 多数的意志受"正义"的普遍法则约束 → 不服从不公正的法律 ≠ 反抗多数,而是上诉"the sovereignty of mankind" → "But this language is that of a slave"(承认"人民可以为所欲为"是奴隶的语言);Plato《Republic》Card 2514 的形而上学理念论 + Hume《Dialogues》Card 2444 自然神学批判 + Feuerbach《Essence》Card 2515 哲学人类学,Tocqueville 是 W5 第 3 本历史哲学 anchor。

In America the principle of the sovereignty of the people is not either barren or concealed, as it is with some other nations; it is recognized by the customs and proclaimed by the laws; it spreads freely, and arrives without impediment at its most remote consequences. If there be a country in the world where the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people can be fairly appreciated, where it can be studied in its application to the affairs of society, and where its dangers and its advantages may be foreseen, that country is assuredly America. I have already observed that, from their origin, the sovereignty of the people was the fundamental principle of the greater number of British colonies in America. It was far, however, from then exercising as much influence on the government of society as it now does. Two obstacles, the one external, the other internal, checked its invasive progress. It could not ostensibly disclose itself in the laws of colonies which were still constrained to obey the mother-country: it was therefore obliged to spread secretly, and to gain ground in the provincial assemblies, and especially in the townships. American society was not yet prepared to adopt it with all its consequences. The intelligence of New England, and the wealth of the country to the south of the Hudson (as I have shown in the preceding chapter), long exercised a sort of aristocratic influence, which tended to retain the exercise of social authority in the hands of a few.

12 章节递进结构清晰:Ch I 地理 → Ch II 起源 → Ch III 社会条件 → Ch IV 主权原则 → Ch V 乡镇 → Ch VI-VIII 联邦 → Ch VII 出版自由 → Ch VIII 陪审团 → Ch XI 多数暴政 → Ch XII 习俗;Ch IV 是核心过渡章节,把"主权在民"从抽象原则拉到具体制度。

The cause of the tyranny of the majority is to be found in the very fact of the equality of conditions. When men are no longer connected by ties of caste, of class, of profession, of fortune, they are only too apt to forget the interests of those who are unlike themselves; and the more they are brought together in the same assembly, the more they lose the sense of individual responsibility. The individual, in his isolation, is powerless; but in the assembly of the people, he becomes powerful. This is the cause of the tyranny of the majority. It is the equality of conditions which leads men to this state of mind, and it is the equality of conditions which renders them incapable of resisting it. Three causes, however, contribute to mitigate the tyranny of the majority in the United States. The first is the absence of those administrative centralizations which have been so destructive of liberty in Europe. The second is the existence of the jury system, which I have already described. The third is the existence of the freedom of the press, which I shall hereafter describe. But the most powerful of all the causes which tend to mitigate the tyranny of the majority is the influence of manners, which is the natural product of the equality of conditions.

多数暴政的三减轻机制 + 习俗(最大力量);证据来源:Tacitus《Germania》(公元 98 年)+ 1620 Plymouth 殖民 + 1776 美国独立战争 + 1787 联邦宪法 + 1830 年代美国各州法律实证;F15 乡镇人口数据 outdated 标记(19 世纪 2-3 千 → 现代数万人)。

It is not undesignedly that I begin this subject with the Township. The village or township is the only association which is so perfectly natural that wherever a number of men are collected it seems to constitute itself. The commune exists in all nations, whatever may be the customs and the laws which preside over its existence; it is therefore anterior to all laws, and is the most natural of all associations. In the New England townships, however, the municipal organization is not an isolated fact. It forms an integral part of a general system, and may be regarded as the type of the whole social organization. In the United States, the political life of the people is not confined to the central government; it is diffused through the different parts of the country, through the different townships, the different counties, and the different States. The citizens of the United States form a great number of small political communities, which are all united by the ties of a common interest, and which are all animated by a common spirit.

乡镇是"the most natural of all associations"先于一切法律 + New England 乡镇系统是全社会组织的典型 + 美国民主的活力归因于"the constant habit of self-government";19 世纪美国政治制度的具体诊断;对 1848 法国第二共和国 + 1860 俄国 + 1868 日本 + 1880 意大利宪政改革的直接影响。

Whenever the political laws of the United States are to be discussed, it is with the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people that we must begin. The principle of the sovereignty of the people, which is to be found, more or less, at the bottom of almost all human institutions, generally remains concealed from view. It is obeyed without being recognized, or if for a moment it be brought to light, it is hastily cast back into the gloom of the sanctuary. 'The will of the nation' is one of those expressions which have been most profusely abused by the wily and the despotic of every age. To the eyes of some it has been represented by the venal suffrages of a few of the satellites of power; to others by the votes of a timid or an interested minority; and some have even discovered it in the silence of a people, on the supposition that the fact of submission established the right of command.

19 世纪法语政论散文高峰 + Henry Reeve 1835 英译的优雅;Ch IV "The principle of the sovereignty of the people is recognized by the customs and proclaimed by the laws" 是英语散文的高光;"The will of the nation"被"wily and the despotic of every age"滥用 的修辞是 19 世纪法国政治讽刺的杰作。

I have already stated the principal causes which led to the foundation of the New England colonies. The leading principle which actuated the first emigrants was the desire of enjoying those political rights which the mother-country denied them, and of establishing a form of government in which the principle of the sovereignty of the people should be carried into effect. It was the fundamental principle of the New England colonies, that the people should have a share in the government, not only in the choice of its rulers, but also in the framing of its laws. The principle of the sovereignty of the people was not, in the New England colonies, an inert principle, like that of which we have spoken in the preceding chapter; it was a real and active principle, which established itself in the laws and in the manners of the people. Every township formed a sort of independent republic, and every State was a confederation of small republics.

跨学科(政治学 + 历史学 + 法理学 + 哲学 + 人类学 + 修辞学);New England 乡镇制度追溯到 Tacitus 描述的古日耳曼部落制度(公元 1-2 世纪);1620 Plymouth 殖民者熟悉 Tacitus《Germania》→ 把日耳曼部落土地划分 + 公共权威原则移植到新英格兰;深度大,接近 Hegel《Philosophy of Right》Card 2507 的法哲学全集跨度。

The influence of the liberty of the press does not affect political opinions alone, but it extends to all the opinions of men, and it modifies customs as well as laws. In another part of this work I shall attempt to determinate the degree of influence which the liberty of the press has exercised upon civil society in the United States, and to point out the direction which it has given to the ideas, as well as the tone which it has imparted to the character and the feelings, of the Anglo-Americans, but at present I purpose simply to examine the effects produced by the liberty of the press in the political world. I confess that I do not entertain that firm and complete attachment to the liberty of the press which things that are supremely good in their very nature are wont to excite in the mind; and I approve of it more from a recollection of the evils it prevents than from a consideration of the advantages it ensures.

Tocqueville 1835(35 岁)亲历美国 1831-32 实地考察(9 个月 + 与 Beaumont 同行 + 走访 17 州 + 与杰克逊总统会晤);Henry Reeve 1835 英译(31 岁)与法语原版同年出版;Reeve 是当时英国自由派评论家;Palgrave Macmillan 现代标准版。

I do not think that it is possible to combine several principles in the same government, so as at the same time to maintain freedom, and really to oppose them to one another. The form of government which is usually termed mixed has always appeared to me to be a mere chimera. Accurately speaking there is no such thing as a mixed government (with the meaning usually given to that word), because in all communities some one principle of action may be discovered which preponderates over the others. England in the last century, which has been more especially cited as an example of this form of Government, was in point of fact an essentially aristocratic State, although it comprised very powerful elements of democracy; for the laws and customs of the country were such that the aristocracy could not but preponderate in the end, and subject the direction of public affairs to its own will. The error arose from too much attention being paid to the actual struggle which was going on between the nobles and the people, without considering the probable issue of the contest, which was in reality the important point. When a community really has a mixed government, that is to say, when it is equally divided between two adverse principles, it must either pass through a revolution or fall into complete dissolution.

混合政府是"a mere chimera"(幻觉)→ 英国 18 世纪是 essentially aristocratic State → 1835 → 1848 法国第二共和国 + 1860 俄国亚历山大二世改革 + 1868 日本明治维新 + 1880 意大利宪政改革的直接影响;vs Madison《The Federalist No. 10》Card 2460 的"checks and balances"制度论;Tocqueville 把反多数暴政的最终力量归到"manners"(习惯)—— 这是 Tocqueville 政治哲学中最具 19 世纪法国保守派色彩的命题;20 世纪冷战时期民主国家 vs 极权国家 + 21 世纪中国与美国治理模式的对照 + Trumpism 时代"tyranny of the majority"的再讨论。