Alexis de Tocqueville is probably the most famous European observer of American democratic life. A key insight he makes is that associational activity is necessary to democratic government. This chapter traces Tocqueville’s argument on the shape of American associations as the authoritative equivalent in liberal democracy to the aristocracy in England and the government in France. To understand the shape of American associations, this chapter explores the particular history of American associations in the founding covenants of townships, churches, and colonies throughout early American history. Americans were simply used to founding their own governing structures. This not only influenced constitution writing at the state and federal level in the 1770s and 1780s, but also the formation of the plethora of associations that Tocqueville would observe in the early nineteenth century. For Tocqueville, this penchant for associations was a benevolent necessity. For Americans, it was their way of self-government. Along the way, this chapter will show the associational freedom necessary to such acts of self-government.