Enlightened Self-Interest What are the roles of the Citizen in American Democracy? If one were to ask this question of Alexis de Tocqueville, he would have had quite a lot to say about it. Alexis de Tocqueville was a French aristocrat who lived from 1805 to 1859. In 1831, he came to the U.S. for nine months to observe revisions of the prison system, but he ended up seeing so much more. He ended up writing two …showed first 75 words of 777 total…

…showed last 75 words of 777 total…republican form of government must rely more on self-interest than civic virtue. He thought a government based on pure civic virtue simply would not work, and I wholly agree (civiced). Enlightened self-interest means that people should do what is natural to them- do good to others, while being somewhat selfish in the long run. There have been many different views on the matter in the past, and, no doubt, there will be in the future.