With Heart, You Can Lift a 1000 Pound Cow or Defeat 61 Enemy Planes in Aerial Combat even if Blind in One Eye

William A. Cohen Ph.D.

PUBLISHED:

October 6, 2023

Drucker wrote: “Living in fear of loss of job and income is incompatible with taking responsibility for job and work group, for output and performance.” But how can you avoid fear of job loss and loss of income when both are real possibilities in your situation?  

 

A highly successful Broadway musical of the 1950’s, Damn Yankees, suggested that winning was always possible with “heart.” This blockbuster was based on a book The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, by Douglas Wallop. In this book, a fictitious Yankees team, dominated major league baseball. It was challenged by another fictitious, but less successful Washington, DC team. A song in the Broadway musical promoted “heart” as more important than baseball skill.

 

Here’s the song as performed in the musical:

 

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=+You+Gotta+Have+Heart+-+Song+by+Richard+Adler+and+Jerry+Ross&mid=9ED399B3FDACF88E68A19ED399B3FDACF88E68A1
 

The Washington team eventually beat the “unbeatable” Yankees.

 

Drucker’s Analysis


You must acquire any traits yourself before you can instill them in others. Drucker knew only one sure way to acquire heart and the self-confidence that resulted.

 

Everyone starts out in life having to accomplish some difficult acts in infancy. Yet as adults they are not remembered as being difficult or even think of them as much of a challenge today.


Unless you have an injury which you haven’t yet overcome, there is no longer any doubt that when you stand, advance one leg and then another, that you are going to move forward, and when you open your mouth, you can communicate easily. Those who have impairment of these skills usually learn to accomplish them again. Even with the most serious disabilities, most overcome these limitations even with artificial limbs.


Adults have a right to expect to be able to learn and succeed with complex and challenging tasks. But they may not be successful for one of two reasons. Either he or she  has been unsuccessful at similar tasks or projects in the past or has never tried to accomplish the tasks at all previously. Those who have never tried a task at which they don’t expect to succeed frequently haven’t tried because they feel that they would fail if they did try. But I know they can do them because they’ve already accomplished more challenging tasks years ago by just learning to walk and talk.

 

Learning to Crawl First


How many infants have you heard of that simply hopped out of their cribs and began to walk and run? I haven’t heard of any. The typical sequence is that an infant learns to roll over, begins to crawl, gains self-confidence enough to stand up, gains a little more self-confidence and without instruction takes a step and falls. But the infant  knows that it made a start and will eventually succeed. Usually, the parents are are full of praise and cheer enthusiastically even though the infant may not have managed to take a single successful step. . The attempt is certainly not thought of as a failure, but rather an uncompleted effort, and the infant eagerly tries again. If he or she doesn’t grow up to run a four minute mile, at least running is mastered along with walking.


This illustrates one fact as to why some, including experienced executives, sometimes lack self-confidence to accomplish new things, which aren’t as demanding these early essentials. An infant learning a task frequently has cheering supporters. But even if it didn’t, who’s to say that the first step, even with falling, was a bad attempt? However, as we get older, some others are more judgmental and a few involved may even hope we fail! They criticize us if we make a single mistake. They are not encouraging like our parents as we learned to walk. As a result, we get the idea that it was not a good attempt no matter what the results. It took my youngest son, today a highly successful management consultant and investor, almost two years to learn to talk. I wasn’t worried. I knew that he had heart, and it took Einstein almost four years to master speech!



Gain Self-Confidence through Experience as You “Pay Your Dues”


Many of us eventually become successful almost automatically  and there is nothing wrong with this, except that it is usually a longer process. Basically, you enter your work or profession, do what you are told, work hard, exert effort and are eventually promoted. Some call this “paying your dues.” Your efforts are eventually recognized and rewarded. As you progress, you gain self-confidence. However, with this method you are subject to fate and what tasks are assigned. You usually advance and reach some of your goals eventually, but there is a better way which is more efficient and certain.
 
Take Charge of Your Own Confidence Building


If you have heart and decide to voluntarily take on challenging goals in your own areas of interest, it is much faster than the previous method and you have more control. It is based on the principle of your taking charge and deciding on your own progress and development. This takes heart. You can develop just about anything, physical or mental, by beginning with a small challenge and intentionally building confidence over time as you progress with  self-selected challenges toward a goal you want to achieve. It is related to the slower, “pay your dues” method but it is much easier, less risky and you are guaranteed results since you are not dependent on someone else’s requirements. You decide what you want to do, how often, and when.

 

British WWI flying ace Major “Mick” Mannock shot down 61 planes in aerial combat during his time as an aviator. Unknown to his enemies and medical experts that qualified him for flying, due to an injury, he was partially blind in his left eye. But this didn’t stop him.

 

How did Mannock succeed? He proceeded  purposefully toward goals that he set for himself despite his handicap. In Japan this process is known as “kaizen.”

 

Drucker noted that: “Every artist throughout history has practiced ‘kaizen’.” You will be a top producer if you pick your own goals for your development and if you work on developing these talents further.” If you want to get physically strong, exercise your muscles every day, and every day they’ll grow bigger, and your strength will increase.


Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t start out with those powerful muscles that led to his winning bodybuilding championships and eventually to becoming the top paid actor in Hollywood and then Governor of California. By exercising with increasingly heavy weights, his muscles got larger and stronger until eventually he was world champion.


In bodybuilding, this didn’t start with Arnold. Milo of Croton was a champion Greek athlete and Olympic competitor in the 6th century B.C. He participated in six Olympic games four years apart. Before the first, he began an exercise which brought him strength, self-confidence, and eventual fame throughout the ancient world. Milo lifted  and carried a newborn calf weighing about 80 pounds. He continued every day for four years before the Olympics began. By the Olympics started, the calf was a full-grown cow weighing 1000 pounds. Milo carried the cow the length of the Olympic stadium, creating a spectacle which not only demonstrated his strength and self-confidence, but discomforted his competitors and created a psychological advantage.


Though the calf weighed only 80 pounds when he started, when he carried the same calf four years later, it had grown into a 1000 pound cow. Milo’s feat was noted in several books written about him during his lifetime.


Now I’m not suggesting that you begin lifting a calf which will become a fully grown cow to develop your self-confidence, although this would undoubtedly do the job. But the principle works for other accomplishments in your own field. All you need to do is to make the decision and begin to set goals in an area of your interest, and then to do them. Select an easy goal to begin and proceed as you successively accomplish more difficult goals. Every time you complete one, congratulate yourself. Your heart and self-confidence are taking you to success.


This is how Arnold trained with weights. He increased their poundage as the calf increased body weight. Arnold further increased the difficulty of the exercises as his muscles and strength developed. Because he had heart, his ability and capability as well as his confidence increased and like Milo, Schwarzenegger eventually did things that others, maybe even he, never thought he could do when he started. If you follow his plan, you too will have acquired the strength and  self-confidence you need to succeed in whatever you desire, and like Governor Schwarzenegger, Milo of Croton, Major Mannock in World War One, and many others, this can take you to great levels of success in whatever your interest or occupation.


*Adapted from Peter Drucker’s Way to the Top, by William A. Cohen,   (LID, 2019).

Marc Benioff: Reimagining Capitalism through Management as a Liberal Art

By Robert Kirkland Ph.D. • November 4, 2025
When Marc Benioff founded Salesforce in 1999, Silicon Valley had a pretty straightforward playbook which was technological disruption at any cost. Profit, scale, and market capture dominated corporate ambition. Benioff, who worked under Steve Jobs at Apple and explored Buddhist philosophy, was not satisfied with that approach. He envisioned a company that would not only revolutionize enterprise software through the cloud but also redefine the social purpose of business itself. His leadership at Salesforce reflects Peter Drucker's concept of Management as a Liberal Art (MLA). This idea holds that management is not just about efficiency or growth, but about making work human, creating meaning, and building institutions that serve society (Drucker, 1989). Philanthropy as Structure From Salesforce’s inception, Benioff took an unusual approach. He instituted the “1-1-1 model”, pledging one percent of company equity, product, and employee time to philanthropy. This simple yet radical idea embedded social responsibility into the company’s DNA, ensuring that business success translated into community benefit (Salesforce, 2021). Peter Drucker made a similar point in The Concept of the Corporation (1946). He argued that companies cannot operate as "islands of profit" detached from their communities. Benioff's model, now replicated worldwide through the Pledge 1% movement, demonstrates that corporate citizenship can be institutionalized, not just idealized. By formalizing philanthropy as part of corporate structure rather than discretionary charity, Salesforce gave proof to Drucker’s claim that companies can serve as stabilizing social institutions. Human-Centered Leadership Drucker emphasized that management is a humanistic discipline requiring both knowledge and self-awareness. Benioff has consistently modeled this through self-reflection and moral grounding. As a long-time advocate of mindfulness and meditation, he integrates spiritual awareness with corporate purpose. In Trailblazer (2019), Benioff reflects on how introspection informs strategic clarity and ethical leadership. Compassion is a core managerial value for Benioff. This aligns with Drucker’s insistence that good leaders must "engage the whole human being," acknowledging both rational capability and emotional complexity. In cultivating mindfulness as an organizational practice, Benioff turns what Drucker called “self-knowledge” into a shared institutional expectation, not a private exercise. Stakeholder Capitalism in Practice Perhaps Benioff’s most significant Druckerian contribution is his public challenge to shareholder primacy. As a high-profile advocate of stakeholder capitalism, he has urged fellow executives to view not just investors, but also customers, employees, communities, and the planet as legitimate stakeholders in corporate decision-making. Drucker anticipated this shift in 1999 when he argued that institutions must balance individual rights with broader social responsibilities, and that leadership must be anchored in moral purpose rather than short-term gain. Benioff operationalized this at Salesforce by making equality, climate action, and community impact strategic priorities alongside financial metrics. Salesforce has built environmental and social-impact objectives into its leadership accountability and public reporting, positioning those outcomes as core measures of performance rather than PR exercises. In Drucker's terms, this marks a shift from a purely economic mandate to an explicitly ethical one. Building a Meaningful Culture At Salesforce, Benioff’s internal culture emphasizes equality, diversity, and trust. His mantra of “Ohana” a Hawaiian term for family defines the company’s social ethos. Through listening sessions, employee councils, and direct engagement with staff, Benioff attempts to cultivate what Drucker would call a functioning institution: a place where individuals are offered both status and function, and where they derive meaning through active contribution. One concrete expression of this philosophy is Salesforce’s repeated company-wide pay equity audits. The company has publicly acknowledged compensation gaps across gender and race and then allocated millions of dollars to close them. This reflects Drucker’s view that organizations must respect human dignity and align personal fulfillment with collective mission. Benioff’s conviction that fairness can be measured and corrected turns theory into everyday management practice. Balancing Technology and Humanity In Post-Capitalist Society (1993), Drucker identified the rise of the knowledge worker as a defining feature of modern institutions. Salesforce, as a platform for digital collaboration across sales, service, marketing, analytics, and commerce, is organized around those workers. But Benioff’s management philosophy resists the idea that productivity can be reduced to code and dashboards. He argues that innovation begins in empathy and trust, not automation, which echoes Drucker’s warning that management cannot dissolve into technique. At the same time, Salesforce has embraced artificial intelligence through Einstein GPT and autonomous AI agents to automate routine tasks. While this automation has replaced certain roles, Benioff has publicly insisted that human connection remains irreplaceable in high-value work such as enterprise sales, and Salesforce is simultaneously hiring thousands of additional salespeople. By automating repetitive tasks while elevating distinctly human work, Benioff is enacting Drucker’s belief that technology must remain subordinate to judgment, responsibility, and moral purpose (Drucker, 1990). His leadership has also demonstrated Drucker’s axiom that effective management requires balancing continuity with change. Continuity and Change Over two decades, Salesforce has evolved from a single product - customer relationship management delivered via the cloud - to a global platform ecosystem spanning analytics, integration, AI, collaboration, and industry-specific solutions. Yet it’s core values; trust, customer success, innovation, and equality have remained remarkably consistent. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted this balance. Salesforce mobilized its logistics network and relationships to support public health responses, sourced and donated medical equipment, and repurposed internal systems to help governments and hospitals. Simultaneously, it accelerated digital transformation for its customers, positioning the company as both economic actor and civic partner. This is management serving society not just stakeholders. Moral Stewardship and Systems Thinking A key aspect of Drucker’s MLA is its interdisciplinary nature. He describes management as a liberal art because it must draw on ethics, psychology, economics, history, and even theology to exercise wise judgment (Drucker, 1989). Benioff exemplifies this approach. He openly blends spiritual language, social justice arguments, civic activism, and technology strategy. He links corporate tax policy to homelessness and public health, climate action to fiduciary duty, and workforce equity to innovation capacity. This is not accidental rhetoric. It is an attempt to widen the frame of what “business leadership” is allowed to talk about. And in doing so, Benioff turns the CEO role into something closer to what Drucker called moral stewardship: the active use of organizational power to strengthen society’s fabric. A Model for the 21st Century Drucker argued that a functioning society depends on institutions that foster responsible citizenship, provide meaningful work, and accept obligations beyond profit. Salesforce’s global initiatives illustrate this principle. Its Climate Action Plan, net-zero commitments, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and Pledge 1% expansion reinforce that corporations can be both market leaders and social institutions. Benioff sees business as a primary vehicle for delivering resources, talent, and problem-solving at scale to communities. Marc Benioff’s work at Salesforce is one of the clearest contemporary examples of Management as a Liberal Art. Through empathy, ethical reflection, institutional responsibility, and systemic awareness, Benioff has redefined 21st century management. Like Drucker, he views organizations as moral communities’ arenas for both performance and purpose. In an era of automation, widening inequality, and environmental crisis, Benioff believes that capitalism can be rehabilitated, but only if leaders understand management not as control, but as stewardship. The liberal art of management is not an outdated ideal; it is a living practice and essential for the legitimacy of business itself.  References Benioff, M. (2019). Trailblazer: The power of business as the greatest platform for change. Currency. Drucker, P. F. (1946). The concept of the corporation. New York: The John Day Company. Drucker, P. F. (1989). The new realities: In government and politics, in economics and business, in society and world view. New York: Harper & Row. Drucker, P. F. (1990). Managing the non-profit organization. New York: HarperBusiness. Drucker, P. F. (1993). Post-capitalist society. New York: HarperBusiness. Drucker, P. F. (1999). Management challenges for the 21st century. New York: HarperBusiness. Salesforce. (2021). Philanthropy and the 1-1-1 model. https://www.salesforce.com/company/philanthropy/

Drucker on Soft Power

By Michael Cortrite Ph.D. • November 4, 2025
What is Soft Power? A relatively new concept in the field of leadership is soft power. The term was coined in 1990 by Joseph S. Nye, a leading architect of U.S. foreign policy for six decades. He worked for two U.S. presidents and served as dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government for a decade. Nye believed that whatever helped the world helped the United States. Soft power refers to an organization’s or country’s ability to influence others through attraction rather than coercion or payment. A good example is the aid that the United States gives to other poorer nations to alleviate disease, hunger, poverty, and illiteracy. Nye also discussed “smart power,” which involves using both hard power (military or political might) and soft power. (Nye, 1990). In furtherance of a more peaceful world, the question is whether we want leaders who are oblivious to the effectiveness of soft power and instead use hard power to coerce, threaten, and force people, or leaders who use both soft and hard power to help people. In the short term, hard power typically prevails over soft power, but in the long term, soft power often prevails. Hard power is a short-term solution, whereas soft power has long-lasting results. (Nye, 2025). Clearly, soft power can be more effective for accomplishing goals in many circumstances. However, there are times when hard power can be used in conjunction with soft power — the concept known as smart power — to be more effective in influencing the behavior of others. Sometimes people are attracted to or intimidated by threatening or bullying behavior (hard power). In this case, hard power is more effective because people fear the negative consequences of speaking out against the people in power (Tanis et al. 2025). An example of the failure of hard power can be seen in the United States’ invasion of Iraq in 2003, intended to limit terrorism. The invasion itself, along with brutal images of Abu Ghraib prison and the imprisonment of suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay Prison without any due process, was shown to increase the recruitment of more terrorists (Nye, 2008). Another example of potential real-life consequences of a leader choosing between hard power and soft power is reported in Foreign Policy Magazine (2025): Joseph Nye was dismayed that the new administration in Washington was using the hard power tactics of threatening, bullying, and ordering, along with canceling the soft power accomplishments of U.S. foreign aid programs. He predicted that they were ceding a United States-led world to one dominated by China, because China understands the potential of soft power. Apparently, the current administration does not. Veteran journalist Andreas Kluth (2025) notes that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is one of the most effective examples of the United States' soft power. It is best known for its humanitarian efforts to combat AIDS, malaria, and starvation abroad. It is estimated that without the work of USAID, an additional 14 million deaths will occur in the next five years. Almost as bad as the deaths is that the goodwill created in numerous foreign countries will be gone. Kluth and the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee (2025) are concerned that China will be stepping into the void of losing USAID. They warn that China now has more soft power than the United States and outspends the United States in foreign aid 40 to 1 in its pursuit of world domination (Kluth 2025). In this regard, Blanchard and Lu (2012) point out a weakening of U.S. soft power since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the US invasion of Iraq, and continuing unilateralism of the United States. Peter Drucker Drucker was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1909, and as a young man witnessed Europe being taken over by the totalitarian, fascist regime of Adolph Hitler starting in the mid to late 1920s and Hitler’s being elevated to Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Drucker knew firsthand that totalitarianism hurts people, and he spent much of his life analyzing its causes and cautioning people against it. According to Drucker, people will not willingly allow their country to become totalitarian if society gives all people status, dignity, respect, and a meaningful place in society. Drucker called this a functioning society. He advocated for a people-centric approach in leadership, where people were given autonomy and no one was left behind or abandoned by society. Although Peter Drucker did not use the term "soft power," upon examining his writings and life’s work, it is clear that he preferred the use of soft power over hard power. His classic invention of Management by Objectives, which gives employees considerable autonomy, is a prime example of soft power (Drucker 1954). He felt that companies had a social dimension as well as an economic purpose (Drucker 1942). He wanted companies to treat workers as an important resource, rather than solely as a cost (Drucker 1993). Drucker would disapprove of the most powerful democracy in the world ceding its world leader status to a totalitarian country, China. The fear is that China being seen as the world leader might influence or encourage other countries to allow dictatorial and autocratic governance (Shlapentokh 2021).  Bardy et al. (2010), in their study of Peter Drucker and ethics in the United States and Europe, posit that Drucker’s good ethics in business efforts ensure that society is being served and that change efforts are successfully brought about by adhering to Drucker’s discourse and right behavior. They said that Drucker was caring and ethical in his treatment of managers and employees, much like a leader who prefers soft power. Drucker was quoted as quoting William Norris; “The purpose of a business is to do well by doing good” (p. 539). Showing his preference for doing good for people demonstrates care ethics (Coorman, 2025), which is mostly what soft power is entails. Conclusion Peter Drucker is renowned for his ability to predict future trends in various domains, including business, economics, and society (Cohen, 2012). Currently, the world seems to be at a crossroads: Will democracy survive? Will we learn how to communicate with each other? We need to remember the wise and ethical teachings of Peter Drucker, especially on the effectiveness of using soft power. Drucker’s blend of practical management advice with profound ethical underpinnings underscores his status as a thought leader who not only understood the mechanics of management but also engaged with the moral implications of leadership within complex societal frameworks. References Bardy, R. & Rubens, A. (2010). Is There a Transatlantic Divide?: Reviewing Peter F. Drucker’s Thoughts on Ethics and Leadership of U.S. and European Managers. Management Decision. Vol. 48. Iss. 4. 528-540. DOI:10.1108/00251741011041337. Cohen, W. (2012). Drucker on Marketing: Lessons from the World’s Most Influential Business Thinker. McGraw Hill. Coorman, L. 2025. Soft Power. Master’s Thesis. Indiana University, Herron School of Art and Design. 2025. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/50513 Drucker, P, (1942). The Future of Industrial Man. Mentor Book/New American Library. Drucker, P. (1954). The Practice of Management. Harper & Row. Drucker, P, (1993). The Concept of the Corporation. Routledge. Kluth, A. 2025. How the U.S. is Making China Great Again. The Week. Iss. 12. Aug 2, 2025. Nye, J. (1990). Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. Basic Books. Nye, J. (2008). Soft Power. Leadership Excellence. Vol. 25. Iss. 4. April 2010. Nye, J. 2024. Invest in Soft Power. Foreign Policy. Sept. 9. https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/09/09/us-soft-power-culture-political-values-democracy-human-rights/ Nye, J. (2025). Obituary. Los Angeles Times, 5/21/25 p. 11. Shlapentokh, D. 2021. Marxism and the Role of the State in the Soviet and Chinese Experience. International Journal of China Studies. Vol. 12. Iss. 1. (Jun. 2021) 157-186. https://2q21dwppn-mp03-y-https-www-proquest-com.proxy.lirn.net/scholarly-journals/marxism-role-state-soviet-chinese-experience/docview/2565686898/se-2. Tanis, F. and Emanuel, G. 2025. To Speak or not to Speak: Why Many Aid Groups are Silent about the Trump Cuts. NPR Weblog Post. August 1, 2025. https://www.proquest.com/abitrade/blogs-podcasts-websites/speak-not-why-many-aid-groups-are-silent-about/docview/3235492953/sem-2?accountid=150887

Alexis de Tocqueville and The Future of Democracy: Part III

By Karen Linkletter, Ph.D. • August 20, 2025
Previously, I shared de Tocqueville’s concept of equality of condition and how it is manifesting in today’s perception that democracy has failed to deliver on its promise of economic and social equality for all. Promises of economic equality are impossible to fulfill; but democratic societies can and should offer all of their members dignity and a sense of purpose. In this final installment, I’ll share de Tocqueville’s prescriptions for shoring up the institutions of a democratic society – as well as some of his warnings about challenges that democracies face. Tendency Towards Strong Authority According to de Tocqueville, the love of equality found in democracies leads to a tendency towards favoring strong, centralized governmental power. As conditions become more equal, “individuals seem of less and society of greater importance” (Tocqueville, 1835, p. 290). This leads to what he refers to as “uniformity of legislation”: the belief that laws and rules should be applied uniformly to everyone across society. Nuance and complexity are lost, and individual difference is subsumed to a concept akin to Rousseau’s General Will (which Drucker treated with the utmost disdain). The United States that de Tocqueville visited was still relatively rural and homogenous in 1830, but there certainly were tensions brewing with respect to slavery, the role of women in society, and the balance between manufacturing and agriculture in the economy. Today, the United States at times stresses the importance of strong federal power, usually to assert law and order or negotiate with other sovereign nations, but at other times lauds the role of individuals having a voice in state and local matters, such as educational curriculum and budgetary control. This tension between the desire for central authority and states’ rights has a long history and continues to impact legislative and other matters. Role of the Judiciary De Tocqueville holds up the Constitution as an exemplary system of checks and balances to counter this tendency towards the power of the “despotic majority.” James Madison famously warned of “tyranny of the majority” in his Federalist Paper Number 10. De Tocqueville favored the system of federalism, which limited the powers of the federal government to those functions that were best suited to a central power and delegated the rest to the states. He stated that this allowed “the Union to combine the power of a great republic with the security of a small one” (Tocqueville, 1835, p. 299). De Tocqueville was particularly impressed with the power given to the judiciary in the United States. He wrote extensively on our system of trial by jury, arguing that serving on a jury was a form of legal education for everyday people, and thus an important part of understanding the workings of the legal process enshrined in the Constitution. The judiciary, he said, “check and direct the impulses of the majority without stopping its activity” (Tocqueville, 1835, p. 299). The role of the courts in the United States today is under challenge. Recent Supreme Court decisions have ceded the power of that body over the executive branch (see Trump v. CASA and Trump v. United States). However, federal courts continue to function to “check and direct” questionable actions through injunctions. Globally, an independent judiciary is seen as crucial to counter rising authoritarianism (Satterthwaite, 2022). The Art of Association Alexis de Tocqueville was fascinated by Americans’ affinity for local action. As a member of the French aristocracy, this was completely foreign to him. He observed Americans participating in local government, clubs, religious congregations, and reform organizations. He used New England as a model, remarking that the system instituted under Puritan rule (which involved self-government and autonomy) fostered a strong sense of local activism: “The New Englander is attached to his township not so much because he was born in it, but because it is a free and strong community, of which he is a member, and which deserves the care spent in managing it” (Tocqueville, 1835, p. 66). Because local action bonded people to one another (in Drucker’s words, provided status and function), they feel a sense of purpose. This “art of association” that Americans demonstrated to de Tocqueville countered the tendency towards negative individualism and the despotism of the majority that he feared. Many authors have documented the increasing atomization of society and subsequent loss of social mixing that was the hallmark of American public life (see Galbraith, The Affluent Society, Putnam, Bowling Alone, and Bishop, The Big Sort). The rise of social media has only increased this tendency. To counter this reality, radio and television commentator Michael Smerconish created “The Mingle Project”, a series of events bringing diverse groups of people together to discuss topics of interest. Free Press De Tocqueville is well-known for advocating for a free press. It is, in fact, one of his core tenants of a functioning democracy: “to suppose that they [newspapers] only serve to protect freedom would be to diminish their importance: they maintain civilization” (Tocqueville, 1835, p. 111). While he acknowledges the existence of “junk news”, he argues that there is much more good information than bad. De Tocqueville was particularly impressed with the wide range and number of newspapers available, particular smaller news outlets. As the primary information source of that era, newspapers allowed people to not only stay current on politics, but also to know of events they could attend. Perhaps most importantly, a free and diverse press sheds light on government, creating yet another possible guardrail against abuses of power. There is substantial research on the impact of declining local news, showing that it contributes to political polarization, lack of voter engagement, and reduced accountability in the public sector (see The state of local news and why it matters, American Journalism Project, https://www.theajp.org/news-insights/the-state-of-local-news-and-why-it-matters/). Declining circulation and advertising revenues have resulted in the closure of thousands of local media outlets despite the fact that most Americans have positive impressions of local journalists. Furthermore, fewer Americans are paying attention to local news, and the majority prefer to get their news from online forums such as Facebook or Nextdoor (Shearer et al., 2024). De Tocqueville’s Warnings It is clear that de Tocqueville saw rule of law, vibrant local organizations, and a healthy fourth estate as counterbalances to the tendency towards despotic rule by the majority and centralized power in democracies. He furthermore warned against two specific threats to democracy: capitalism’s ability to create a permanent social underclass, and citizen apathy. A Manufacturing Aristocracy In 1830, America’s economy was beginning its transition from one based on agriculture to one driven by industry. That transition would accelerate after the Civil War, but de Tocqueville remarked on the transformation that he saw during his visit. He was most concerned, however, with industrialization’s impact on society. As manufacturing became more specialized and routinized, the work itself became more mundane and unfulfilling; de Tocqueville describes to a tee what Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels would a decade or so later describe as “alienation of labor”: “as the workman improves, the man is degraded” (Tocqueville, 1835, p. 158). Spending twenty years “making heads for pins” leaves the worker no room to exercise any curiosity or intelligence; instead, the worker is assigned “a certain place in society, beyond which he cannot go” (Tocqueville, 1835, p. 159). At the same time, manufacturing “raises the class of masters” to the point where worker and owner have nothing in common. Each fill a position that is fixed, and they are dependent upon each other. This, de Tocqueville argues, is an aristocracy. The creation of a “permanent inequality of conditions”, he claims, would spell the demise of democracy. History has shown his analysis to be sound. The Work of Democracy De Tocqueville described the slow delegation of decision making over everyday events from the individual to the state. People, he said, had two conflicting desires: “the want to be led, and they wish to remain free.” In order to fulfill both of these desires, they elect governments democratically but then surrender to “administrative despotism” in the form of rules and regulations that slowly erode individual decision making over matters (Tocqueville, 1835, p. 319). This is another byproduct of equality of conditions; if everyone is the same, then rules can apply to every aspect of life without considering individual circumstances. But of course, this is not the case, and so expanding limitations on judgment, de Tocqueville argues, reduces the ability of democratic citizens to think for themselves. In essence, he is warning that democratic governance requires engagement, involvement, and faith in people’s ability to govern themselves. Otherwise, democracies will simply become administrative tyrannies where the tyrants are duly elected. Conclusion Benjamin Franklin famously responded, when asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had created, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” His comment captures the fragility of this form of government, and the responsibilities it construes on its citizens. Alexis de Tocqueville’s observations and warnings send a similar message to us. We have a responsibility to ensure that fair-minded journalism, judicial equity and oversight, and meaningful social and civic engagement are part and parcel of our democratic system of governance. If we fail to pay attention to the warnings from those who were closest to the early stages of democracy’s development, we stand a fair chance to lose what we have been bequeathed. Sources Bishop, B. (2008). The big sort: Why the clustering of like-minded America is tearing us apart. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Galbraith, J.K. (1958). The affluent society. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon and Schuster. Satterthwaite, M. (2022). The role of an independent judiciary in protecting rule of law. Asia Pacific Justice Forum, World Justice Project, Dec. 8-9, https://worldjusticeproject.org/news/role-independent-judiciary-protecting-rule-law. Shearer, E. et al. (2024). Americans’ changing relationship with local news. Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2024/05/07/americans-changing-relationship-with-local-news/. Tocqueville, A.D. and Reeve, H. (1835). Democracy in America. London: Saunders and Otley, to 1840.
Show More