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Liberty In Society - Theories Of Adam Smith And Alexis De Tocqueville

        Both Adam Smith and Alexis de Tocqueville agree that an
individual is the most qualified to make decisions affecting the
sphere of the individual as long as those decisions do not violate the
law of justice. From this starting point, each theorist proposes a
role of government and comments on human nature and civil society.
Smith focuses on economic liberty and the ways in which government can
repress this liberty, to the detriment of society. De Tocqueville
emphasizes political liberty and the way that government can be
organized to promote political liberty, protect individual liberty,
and promote civil liberty.

        Adam Smith's theory makes a strong argument for the assertion
that a free market will provide overall good for society, but, as de
Tocqueville points out, it provides little or no protection for the
poor. Smith's picture of human nature given in The Theory of Moral
Sentiments suggests that people would do good and take care of the
weak because of characteristics of their nature. Unfortunately, this
image contrasts with the picture of the individual which emerges from
his economic argument in Wealth of Nations and is a generally
unsatisfying answer.

        In attempting to define liberty, Adam Smith is mostly
concerned with negative liberty, or freedom from constraint,
especially market constraints. According to him, in a free market, as
long as they are not fettered by government regulation, actions are
guided toward the public good as if by an invisible hand. Furthermore,
the economic sphere is the determining section of society. Therefore
from his economic model, he derives his argument for the best role of
government and asserts that the resultant society will be the best
overall for civilization.

        Since he defines the individual as sovereign (within the laws
of justice), and he defines liberty as freedom from constraint, his
argument begins with the individual,...