ir.

An analogous observation may be made respecting public officers. It
is easy to perceive that the American democracy frequently errs in
the choice of the individuals to whom it entrusts the power of the
administration; but it is more difficult to say why the State prospers
under their rule. In the first place it is to be remarked, that if in a
democratic State the governors have less honesty and less capacity than
elsewhere, the governed, on the other hand, are more enlightened and
more attentive to their interests. As the people in democracies is more
incessantly vigilant in its affairs and more jealous of its rights,
it prevents its representatives from abandoning that general line of
conduct which its own interest prescribes. In the second place, it must
be remembered that if the democratic magistrate is more apt to misuse
his power, he possesses it for a shorter period of time. But there is
yet another reason which is still more general and conclusive. It is
no doubt of importance to the welfare of nations that they should be
governed by men of talents and virtue; but it is perhaps still more
important that the interests of those men should not differ from the
interests of the community at large; for, if such were the case, virtues
of a high order might become useless, and talents might be turned to
a bad account. I say that it is important that the interests of the
persons in authority should not conflict with or oppose the interests of
the community at large; but I do not insist upon their having the same
interests as the whole population, because I am not aware that such a
state of things ever existed in any country.

No political form has hitherto been discovered which is equally
favorable to the prosperity and the development of all the classes into
which society is divided. These classes continue to form, as it were,
a certain number of distinct nations in the same nation; and experience
has shown that it is no less dangerous to place the fate of these
classes exclusively in the hands of any one of them than it is to make
one people the arbiter of the destiny of another. When the rich alone
govern, the interest of the poor is always endangered; and when the poor
make the laws, that of the rich incurs very serious risks. The advantage
of democracy does not consist, therefore, as has sometimes been
asserted, in favoring the prosperity of all, but simply in contributing
to the well-being of the greatest poss