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, defining a man's labor as the .
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