What does Democracy in America say about quality and freedom?

The future of democracy rests on the fragile balance between the people's equality of conditions and liberty. Tocqueville's analysis shows that this balance can only be maintained if the conditions of both equality and freedom are "extreme." In a perfect society where the conditions of democracy are ideal, equality and liberty are mirror images of each other and blend completely into the social environment. In such a perfect world, "no one is different from his fellows, none can exercise a tyrannical power; men will be perfectly free, because they are all entirely equal; and they will be all perfectly equal, because they are entirely free." However, the world is such that no perfect environment exists and the people will always have to deal with conditions that prevent absolute equality and absolute freedom.

Both concepts of equality and freedom are ambivalent. Tocqueville never makes this ambivalence very clear through his arguments, and the result is sometimes confusing. Equality of conditions even the odds for everyone, but it applies whether or not freedom is involved. Under an imaginary extreme despotic regime, where no freedom exists at all, everyone can be still be called "equal" since their collective condition is the same and everyone is unable to do anything freely. In other words, slaves enjoy perfect equality of conditions among slaves. Freedom is also a dangerous concept, because it can easily be manipulated. In a perfectly bland world, where nothing is left to do or say, then freedom is no more useful than a high performance racecar in the middle of the jungle. Tocqueville shows that equality tends to reduce the social conditions where freedom can have practical applications, making it an even more difficult concept to apply.

In Tocqueville's view, equality constitutes an immediate danger to democracy, because it can turn society against itself. It should be noted, however, that this threat is not specific to America; in fact, he always concludes that America has solved the problem of balancing equality and liberty by extending and securing the realm of both to an unprecedented level through its legislation. The United States laws are able to counter the negative effects of equality by making sure that the principle of liberty remains secured and untouched.