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people into citizens. The statesman is driven by political concerns and
is passionately committed to self-government and human dignity. The
statesman seeks  not, to do great things with men . . . but to make men
great .45
In contrast with Montesquieu, Turgot and Constant, Tocqueville
puts the statesman before the institution and hence rejects the so-called
liberal slogan of  a government of laws, not of man . Tocqueville
remains within the Catholic tradition that holds that good institutions
always depend on good people. The moral being is the foundation of
society. Tocqueville relies on the statesman as that moral being, the
statesman whose primary task is to promote civic virtue and a sense of
personal dignity. Analogously, the primary task of the government
consists in encouraging outstanding personalities rather than discour-
aging potential abusers of power. Tocqueville does not believe that
institutional checks and balances are enough to guard human dignity:
the statesman, who is the guardian of human dignity, must protect the
rights of authority, public decency and public expression. Good and
bad government must be defined in view, not of institutions, but of the
virtues and moral sentiments of the holders in power. For Tocqueville,
the rule of law fulfils the most urgent political task, that is, the mainte-
nance of order. The statesman fulfils the highest political task, which is
the improvement of a nation by making people great (rather than
pleasing them). The highest political task and the most urgent political
task can be conflicting. While the rule of law seeks to protect the estab-
lished order and protect citizens against the turmoil of change, the
statesman may actively threaten the established order to pursue higher
ends. Tocqueville disregards the historical fact that heads of states have
rather been inclined towards evil. It is not the acts of the statesman,
but wrong ideas of his greatness, which are to be feared. Great heads
64 The new science of politics
of states can become immoral in their high positions and while this is a
sad occurrence, it is not as dangerous as when immorality makes heads
of states great in the eyes of the people, for instance by means of dema-
gogy. Tocqueville says:  What is to be feared is not so much the
immorality of the great as the fact that immorality may lead to great-
ness. 46 Tocqueville admires Napoleon, who, despite having ruined
France, was a great statesman. Though Napoleon deprived France of
her liberty and her desire for liberty, and though he had a bad taste in
small and great things, his great personality and grand designs gave
France a lot of self-confidence.47 Tocqueville says:  I reproach it [the
Napoleonic Empire] for the non-liberal side of its institutions, but at
the same time I do full justice to the personal grandeur of Napoleon,
the most extraordinary being, I say, who has appeared in the world for
many centuries. 48
While Tocqueville does not hide his admiration for the personal
grandeur of statesmen and military commanders, Constant, Guizot and
the Doctrinaires, though they admire great characters, emphasize the
harm that grandeur may do to the Rule of Law. Guizot, like Mon-
tesquieu, recognizes a natural aristocracy  individuals who have
natural capacities that place them in an eminent position. Guizot
claims that by virtue of natural law, the bravest and most skilful indi-
viduals usually manage to assert their will and rule over the entire
society. According to Guizot, statesmanship is a natural phenomenon
that manifests itself and accompanies natural superiorities such as
exquisite leadership skills, practical wisdom and exceptional achieve-
ment. As long as no violence upsets the natural course of things, the
government will always consist of people who demonstrate the highest
capacity to exercise and satisfy the public interest. Guizot believes that
the true task of a government is to foster the emergence of new talents
in society, and to elevate the moral condition of the country. Though
Guizot also insists that philosophy is the partner of statecraft (the
statesman must not only consider brute facts but also opinions, pas-
sions and ideas), for him, the most rational government is more of an
active executive power that fosters and promotes education and pro-
perty in society. While Guizot points to the importance of the social
eligibility to statecraft, Tocqueville emphasizes the contradiction
between social eligibility and statecraft. Great statesmen may destroy
social institutions, as Napoleon destroyed the liberal institutions in
society. For Guizot, the statesman must be able to read the social map
in order to pursue good policies that rely on skills, knowledge and
experience of citizens. Tocqueville, by contrast, rejects this view
because it would make the statesman a performing puppet of the
regime.49 Tocqueville insists that the statesman s policies should not be
The new science of politics 65
dependent on institutional options, but that they should be incited by
how to generate citizens who can rely on themselves, be adventurous
and adapted for unpremeditated actions.50 More than Guizot,
Tocqueville fears the power of the majority and the inflexibility of
institutions more than the authority of the statesman.
Raising the standards: the attack on political venality
 All of my discourses, Tocqueville says,  can be reduced to this: an
attack against political venality. 51 For Tocqueville, citizenship is the
first office, the crucial social and political place and the precondition of
all others. It is hence with deep regret that Tocqueville observes that
his contemporaries have lost their sense of the need for active cit-
izenship, their practical understanding of virtue.52 For Tocqueville, the
central problem of modernity is how to revive the great passions latent
in the individual. According to him, the standards for human action
must be raised for the sake of individuals personal dignity, their per-
sonal honour that is a vital force of a people. Tocqueville seeks to raise
the standards by raising the consciousness of suffering and triggering a
sense of dissatisfaction with what has been achieved. He seeks to move
the people against their own apathy and to inspire them to search for
improvement in the political sphere. Tocqueville sees the contemporary [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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