Introduction

Abstract

Alexis de Tocqueville, on his visit to the United States in 1831, was struck by this country's rich and variegated stratum of civil associations -- a stratum that Europeans might fail to appreciate, he noted, "because we have hardly ever seen anything of the kind." Cooperative associations seemed to define the very essence of American life. "Wherever at the head of some new undertaking you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England," observed Tocqueville, "in the United States you will be sure to find an association."