The citizen of the United States is taught from infancy to rely upon his own exertions in order to resist the evils and
the difficulties of life; he looks upon the social authority
with an eye of mistrust and anxiety, and he claims its
assistance only when he is unable to do without it. This
habit may be traced even in the schools, where the children
in their games are wont to submit to rules which they have
themselves established, and to punish misdemeanors
which they have themselves defined. The same spirit
pervades every act of social life.
- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
This excerpt most clearly relates to which central theme?