> Tocqueville observes that among the French “the taste for general ideas” is much stronger than in America, where something of the English proclivity for detai

> Tocqueville observes that among the French “the taste for general ideas” is much stronger than in America, where something of the English proclivity for details and practical concerns predominates. The details & practical concerns, although I've a feeling reading this article is painted as lesser than these higher level "general ideas" is something Tocqueville seemed to find somewhat admirable, or at least he was neutral about it. That basically local government would have an elected official for small, specific matters was a very US thing. Overall he seemed to emphasize how the decentralization in US was in contrast to deep centralization in France (and China, at the time too apparently). How this decentralization meant the principle of "subsidiarity" was applied closely in the US (and was the only major country doing it). (https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1444121638857891844 https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1444121638857891844 for a tweet-sized definition of that principle)