INTRODUCTION

In DA, “democracy” sometimes means equality and sometimes democratic government. The two are obviously related, both conceptually and causally. The conceptual link is clear: democratic government is based on equality of voting power. As in the utilitarian calculus, each (male) citizen counts for one and no one for more than one. The causal links are numerous and complex. As an illustration, recall how democratic envy, born of equality, may lead to the election of mediocre politicians.

Tocqueville was concerned both with explaining the workings of democratic government and with assessing it from a normative point of view. Although I have quoted (and will quote more) passages in which he asserts the inefficiency of democracy as a system of political decision making, this is not the only relevant normative dimension. In a passage I have cited earlier, he praises democracy for promoting “the greater well-being of all” rather than “the singular prosperity of a few,” a statement that is perfectly compatible with the claim that democracy is an inefficient system.

In Figure 8.1, the distribution of welfare at point A represents an aristocratic society and that of point B a democratic one. The curve represents the technically feasible combinations of welfare of the two groups. Any point that is strictly below the curve is inefficient, since one could in theory make both groups better off by moving to some point on the curve. (Economists refer to such a move as a Pareto-improvement.