ABSTRACT
Concentration of economic power would create a degree of dependence for many that would be incompatible with their role as free citizens. The idea was that an approximate equality of economic conditions was essential to the operation of free institutions, because economic equality and also economic independence is necessary for the creation of enlightened citizens. Alexis De Tocqueville carefully noted two forms of socioeconomic organization that differed profoundly from this form of civilization–which he considered basic to American democracy–and threatened its continued existence. The expansion of the national economic system has replaced the frontier as the locus of opportunity. The individual hopes for betterment have come to focus on climbing a status ladder of occupations, and increasingly, upon the progress of the national economy as a whole. Occupation and economic condition were seen as closely linked to the religious, social and political bases of a free society.
