《论美国的民主·卷二·二部·第五章·美国人在市民生活中的结社》第1节
I do not propose to speak of those political associations--by the aid of which men endeavor to defend themselves against the despotic influence of a majority--or against the aggressions of regal power. That subject I have already treated. If each citizen did not learn, in proportion as he individually becomes more feeble, and consequently more incapable of preserving his freedom single-handed, to combine with his fellow-citizens for the purpose of defending it, it is clear that tyranny would unavoidably increase together with equality. Those associations only which are formed in civil life, without reference to political objects, are here adverted to. The political associations which exist in the United States are only a single feature in the midst of the immense assemblage of associations in that country. Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions, constantly form associations. They have not only commercial and manufacturing companies, in which all take part, but associations of a thousand other kinds--religious, moral, serious, futile, extensive, or restricted, enormous or diminutive. The Americans make associations to give entertainments, to found establishments for education, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; and in this manner they found hospitals, prisons, and schools. If it be proposed to advance some truth, or to foster some feeling by the encouragement of a great example, they form a society. Wherever, at the head of some new undertaking, you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association. I met with several kinds of associations in America, of which I confess I had no previous notion; and I have often admired the extreme skill with which the inhabitants of the United States succeed in proposing a common object to the exertions of a great many men, and in getting them voluntarily to pursue it. I have since travelled over England, whence the Americans have taken some of their laws and many of their customs; and it seemed to me that the principle of association was by no means so constantly or so adroitly used in that country. The English often perform great things singly; whereas the Americans form associations for the smallest undertakings. It is evident that the former people consider association as a powerful means of action, but the latter seem to regard it as the only means they have of acting.
注释摘要
托克维尔在这一节的开篇做了一个清晰的划界：他不打算再谈政治结社。他在卷一的章节里已经详细讨论过美国人如何通过政治结社来抵御多数的专制倾向和君权的侵犯。现在他要专讲的是市民生活中那些不以政治为直接目标的结社。但这个划界本身就透露了他的核心判断——政治结社只是美国庞大结社景象中的一个局部特征。美国人无论什么年龄、什么身份、什么性情，都在不断地组织各种各样的社团…