![]() American liberty is enabled by the ability of townships to thrive, he argues-but townships also embody American liberty at its best. He admires the township as both a model of government and as a representation of American politics as a whole, one in which local initiative and the ability of citizens to feel invested in political affairs is embraced and encouraged. ![]() ![]() Such comparisons allow Tocqueville to express his admiration at the complex interrelation of individual people and politics in America. Tocqueville sometimes personifies the township, imagining it as a kind of political person itself: just as people have both political rights and duties, the township has political rights-the ability to collect taxes and build schools, for instance-but also must fulfill certain duties to the central State, such as allowing a road to be established within its purview. Town definition, a thickly populated area, usually smaller than a city and larger than a village, having fixed boundaries and certain local powers of government. ![]() At the time he was writing, townships were responsible for much of the day-to-day activities of government, from collecting taxes to organizing meetings about political issues and questions that may not be relevant to a larger community. Established for the first time around 1650, the American township was a regional subdivision of space and government that would come to be characterized by-as Tocqueville saw it-a peculiarly American embrace of local power, interests, and political participation. ![]()
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