A Tocquevillian Examination of Individualism in Early American Federalism

Many pundits commenting on early American affairs, such as Alexis de Tocqueville, believed that the United States of America benefitted from a unique societal and geographic context which would ultimately drive the narrative behind what is now being called American exceptionalism. This unique experience has permeated almost all facets of its state-centric federal system. The maximization of individual liberty was a driving factor in the American Revolution and it continued to drive a unique sense of nationalism which was later evoked on a continental basis. The American Revolution gave rise to a national emancipation movement driven by the revisionist values of liberty, egalitarianism, individualism and populism. The American Revolution held these values highly and attempted to redress longstanding grievances with an oppressive colonial master. Despite the appeal that liberty and egalitarianism had to the American individual, the United States had not completely broken away from European history, as it had retained class inequities, imperialism and war. The inescapable influences and pervasions of the old world would invariably conflict with the nationalistically driven ideals of emancipation, where the maximization of individual freedom, through the nation is seen as the true definition of freedom. [...]