Alexis Tocqueville and the Puritan Background of Associative Spirit, Civil Obedience, and the Separation of State and Church

Abstract

This essay is intended to address certain customs, habits, and institutions of 19th-century American society that, for Tocqueville, were important pillars of America's successful democratic experience, in line with its Puritan roots stemming from the very founding of New England. In this regard, our position is that it is impossible to make an adequate reading of American democracy that dispenses with the theological dogmas and doctrines embraced by its citizens. To support our point of view, we intend to draw some theoretical parallels between certain biblical doctrines typical of Puritan Christianity and certain ways of understanding the political organization present in North American culture. For this purpose, first of all we will talk about how the Puritan social pact, which understands that every community is made up of a set of people inevitably united with each other by birth, gives rise - to some extent - to the centrality of the American associative spirit. Then, we will deal with the political pact and how the Puritans conceived this relationship as a contract composed of obligations and rights with respect to political power and citizens. Finally we will talk about the necessary separation of the two most important sources of authority of the Puritan and even Tocquevillian times: the Church and the State.