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1129 s4s4s4s4s4 c h a p t e r 2 0a Of Positions Becoming an Industry among Certain Democratic Nations [I have talked about how as conditions become equal the sentiment of ambition spreads. That is seen among all peoples whose social state is becoming democratic , but among them all ambition does not use the same means to satisfy itself.] In the United States, as soon as a citizen has some enlightenment and some resources, he seeks to enrich himself in commerce and industry, or he buys a field covered with forest and becomes a pioneer. All that he asks of the State is not to come to disturb him in his labors and to ensure the fruit of those labors. Among most European peoples, when a man begins to feel his strength and to expand his desires, the first idea that occurs to him is to gain a public post.b These different results, coming from the same cause, are worth our stopping a moment here to consider. a. Among all democratic peoples, the number of ambitions is immense. But among all, ambition does not take the same paths. In America, every man seeks to raise himself by industry or commerce. In France, as soon as [he has (ed.)] the desire to raise himself above his condition, he asks for a public post. Princes favor this tendency, and they are wrong. For since the number of positions that they can give has a limit, and since the number of those who desire positions increases withoutlimits,princesmustnecessarilysoonfindthemselvesbeforeapeople of discontented place seekers (YTC, CVf, p. 48). On the jacket of the manuscript of the chapter, you read: “10 March 1838. Baugy.” b. In a former version: “I have heard it said that in Spain as soon as a man felt himself in an analogous position, the first idea that occurred to him was to gain a public post and that, if he was not able to succeed in doing so, he remained idle” (Rubish, 2). 1130 positions becoming an industry When public offices are few, badly paid, unreliable, and on the other hand, industrial careers are numerous and productive, the new and impatient desires that arise every day from equality are led from all directions toward industry and not toward administration. But if, at the same time that ranks are becoming equal, enlightenment remains incomplete or spirits timid, or commerce and industry, hampered in their development, offer only difficult and slowmeans tomakeafortune, citizens, losing hope of improving their lot by themselves, rush tumultuously toward the head of the Statec and ask his help. To make themselves more comfortable at the expense of the public treasury seems to them to be, if not the only path open to them, at least, the easiest path and the one most open to all for leaving a condition that is no longer enough for them. The search for positions becomes the most popular of all industries. It must be so, above all, in large, centralized monarchies, in which the number of paid officials is immense and the existence of the office holders is adequately secure, so that no one loses hope of obtaining a post there and of enjoying it peacefully like a patrimony.d I will not say that this universal and excessive desire for public office is a great social evil; that it destroys, within each citizen, the spirit of independence and spreads throughout the entire body of the nation a venaland servile temper; that it suffocates the manly virtues; nor will I make the observation that an industry of this type creates only an unproductiveactivity and agitates the country without making it fruitful: all of that is easily understood. But I want to remark that the government that favors such a tendency risks its tranquillity and puts its very life in great danger. I know that, in a time like ours, when we see the love and respect that was formerly attached to power being gradually extinguished, it can appear necessary to those governing to bind each man more tightly by his interest, and that it seems easy to them to use his very passions to keep him in order and in silence; but it cannot be so for long, and what can appearforacertain c. At first: “. . . toward the power of the State.” In the margin: “” d. In the margin, in a first draft from the Rubish: “Spain, great proof of this. “United States, no. A thousand channels for ambition” (Rubish, 2...

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