R: America Needs an Aristocracy

 The famous PBS series Downton Abbey (2010-2015) tells the story of the Crawleys, an aristocratic family that has possessed a grand English estate for centuries. In 1912, the heir to the estate is a distant cousin of the Crawleys’, the practically-minded lawyer Matthew, who disdains the practices and values of his aristocratic relatives, seeing them as ostentatious, unnecessary, and backward. Lord Grantham, the current lord of the estate, staunchly defends the traditional order, saying to his heir, “We all have different parts to play, Matthew, and we should all be allowed to play them.” Lord Grantham essentially believes that order is best maintained when everyone adheres to traditional social roles, most important among them the role of the aristocrat. Matthew soon comes around to Grantham’s way of thinking and embraces the ascendancy of the aristocracy. 

 Indeed, great thinkers and plain persons alike have embraced the idea of being ruled by the best among us for as long as men have set up governments. Aristotle argued in favor of such a system in the Politics, describing aristocracy as government by the most virtuous (III.7). The affirmative may be enticed by this vision of virtue in power and agree with Aristotle that the “best” need not be an elite few but might be composed of a body of virtuous citizens. These modern-day Lord Granthams may also wish to draw a contrast between what Jefferson referred to as “natural” aristocracy and “artificial” aristocracy. In a letter he wrote to John Adams in 1813, Jefferson argued that “there is a natural aristocracy among men” based upon “virtue and talents.” The corrupted version of this system is “an artificial aristocracy, founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents.” In Jefferson’s estimation, it is the artificial kind that the founders cast off and the natural kind that they sought to foster. Aristocracy is core to the American tradition. The affirmative must consider: What characterizes an ideal aristocracy? How ought we to realize such an aristocracy? How can aristocracy leave room for human equality and individual liberty? 

 Perhaps it is these last two, human equality and individual liberty, that galvanize the negative. The United States is unique among Western nations for its historical lack of a landed aristocracy; it is no coincidence that the United States is unique among Western nations for its long defense of the credo that all men are created equal and have the right to life, liberty, and property. History is rife with examples of aristocratic societies grown decadent, cruel, and corrupt. From the patrician Roman Republic to the France of Louis XIV, from the antebellum American South to the Third Reich, aristocracy enables inequality and oppression. The founders rejected the oppressive aristocracies of Europe when they framed the Constitution, and so enabled the ensuing centuries of prosperity, innovation, and global dominance. The inequalities that plague the cast of Downton Abbey never afflicted America in the same way. The Christian tradition, too, has historically been a radically egalitarian force, preaching that the slave is equal to the emperor in the sight of God. The negative must consider: If not aristocracy, what can restrain our dignified republic from becoming the “unchecked democracy” that Madison warned of? How are we to preserve the conservative ideals of order, virtue, and hierarchy if we do away with aristocracy? 

 A final question that both sides may grapple with is whether America, despite its democratic trappings, is truly democratic. For some, the rise of tech titans and CEOs capable of shaping culture and government with their wealth and influence is reminiscent of the dominance of oil, railroad, and steel tycoons who dominated American business and politics 150 years ago. Does America’s republican rhetoric simply gild over an aristocratic reality, or worse–as Aristotle warned of so long ago and President Biden insinuated in his farewell address–an oligarchic reality? 

 Will we, like Matthew in Downton Abbey, make our way to the side of fine china and hereditary titles, or will we stay on the side of hard work and merit? Do we prefer the peerage or the populace? Which is better, the many or the few? 

Further Reading: 

• Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520). 

• Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, §17, 24, 33-34, 47 (1891). 

• Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, I.13, IV.7 (1831). 

• David Brooks, “How the Ivy League Broke America,” in The Atlantic (2024). Terrific article that discusses the rise of a “new aristocracy” in the US. A long read but at least worth a skim. 

• Joe Biden, Farewell Address (2025). Start at 7:30 for the interesting part, where Biden claims that America is becoming an oligarchy. I find it fascinating he used that word and I think this speech and the milieu that surrounds the incoming administration make this resolution extremely relevant.