In his book “Democracy in America,” 19th century French philosopher writes, “the more government stands in the place of associations, the more will individuals, losing the notion of combining together, require its assistance.” De Tocqueville recognized that we are making a Faustian bargain when we buy into the political promise of material wealth and well being if only we allow government to manage our society. The promise is false and the result is to put at risk the morals and intelligence of a democratic people.
In recognizing the importance of associations – that is individuals coming together to celebrate and/or address issues in their communities — De Tocqueville gave voice to the real meaning of personal responsibility.
One often hears the term “personal responsibility” or “personal accountability” used in connection with people taking ownership of the consequences of some (usually bad) behavior. Indeed on the political right, the term is also understood to mean taking care of one’s own business or lifting oneself up with their own bootstraps. There is truth in both definitions. However, as popularly read, both characterizations shade the idea with a negative light when in fact the idea is a positive force that, as de Tocqueville indicates, is just as much about taking care of each other as it is about taking care of ourselves.
It is, as the term suggests a question of ownership, but not only ownership of the consequences of our individual decisions and of the thinking that motivates those choices; it is also about ownership of the duties and privileges that come with living in a “free” democratic society. Who owns our bodies and who owns our communities? The quick answer is that “we” do. Every one of us is as accountable to each other for the health of our communities as we are responsible for the conduct of our personal lives. That accountability manifests itself in associations formed by citizens in order to address the concerns of the community. Happily such associations are not dead…yet. We see them all the time: neighborhood watch groups; church ministries that serve the poor; parents groups that raise money for schools to list but a few examples.
Without question, personal responsibility is also manifest in the pursuit of what the Greeks called “arête” or excellence. It is the striving for excellence in our daily lives — excellence in our work and in our relationships both with our fellow man and with the larger society. The pursuit of that excellence is best accomplished by practicing virtue. So in a larger sense, the idea of personal responsibility is acceptance of the ageless belief in a nexus between virtue and happiness: the better people we are the happier we will be. But it is also recognition that our health and well being are tied to that of our neighbor.
America’s founders of course claimed that not only was there a connection between virtue and happiness, but there also existed one between virtue and freedom.
The most important of the revolutionary ideas upon which our nation was founded is that all men-regardless of race or culture-arrive on earth with inalienable and equal rights to life, liberty and private property. The next most important is the idea that only righteous men can govern themselves. James Madison said that we staked the whole of our republic and all of its institutions on the capacity for men to govern themselves according to the ten commandments of God. Madison, like de Tocqueville, recognized the importance of men’s behavior – their pursuit of arête – in maintaining a free nation. Madison, like de Tocqueville recognized that if Americans couldn’t live virtuous lives then our republic would fail. Americans would not be free. And they would not be bound into slavery by an external enemy, but instead would willingly hand over their freedom to a government that promised wealth, health and equality (as opposed to liberty). Rather than bond together under the righteous banner of loving thy neighbor, Americans would allow their freedom to be crushed under the weight of a constant stream of laws, rules and entitlements designed to deliver on a promise that personal responsibility was designed to keep.
De Tocqueville recognized the enticement of the bargain, but he also understood that in time the resulting subjection would lead men “to surrender the exercise of their own will;” It would break their spirits and sap their character. He grasped the essential truth that personal responsibility is actually the guarantor of our liberty.