According to the great demographer of America in the 1830’s, Alexis de Tocqueville, the local character of American Democracy is what makes it work (the New England Townships being the best example of this tendency in America). The working hypothesis behind this observation is that the microcosm of learning civic skills is transferable and makes citizens who are civically active locally into better citizens at larger levels.

However, you cannot have an effective democracy if a large gap exists between local politics and national economics.

Related posts:

1. Democracy in America Revisited–Parallels Between the Election of 1912 and the Election of 2008 [Fifth of a Series]
2. Democracy in America Revisited, First of a Series
3. Democracy in America Revisited– Defining America’s Current Political Identity [Seventh of a Series]
4. Democracy in America Revisited– The Rise of Authoritarian Capitalism [Sixth of a Series]
5. Democracy in America Revisited—Past is Present When It Comes to Private Philanthropy [Second of a Series]

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