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Democracy in America

by Alexis de Tocqueville

3.84 · rating details · 4,046 ratings · 277 reviews

In 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and ambitious civil servant, made a nine-month journey throughout America. The result was Democracy in America, a monumental study of the life and institutions of the evolving nation. Tocqueville looked to the flourishing democratic system in America as a possible model for post-revolutionary France, believing that t...more

Paperback, 992 pages

Published July 1st 2003 by Penguin Classics (first published January 1st 199)

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Feb 17, 2009

Karey rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: bettering-myself

Update: My brother just told me that Kurt Vonnegut says that anyone who hasn't read Democracy in America is a wimp. So I guess that makes me almost not a wimp. Well!

Post from a few weeks ago: I've been wanting to read de Toqueville's, Democracy in America for some time, and I've finally bit the bullet. The translation is beautifully done. De Toqueville's sentiments are eloquent and thought provoking. Wonderful.

How's that for summer reading! Part of me wishes we still ta...more

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Dec 18, 2011

Mike (the Paladin) rated it

· review of another edition

I'm going with 4 stars here, it isn't always the easiest book to read, but worth it. There is a lot of wisdom in this book, a lot of insight. While history hasn't borne out all his predictions, there have been enough. Sadly also, it looks as though more of the things he said may still prove to be true.

In today's atmosphere, the thoughts here compared to the reality we live in and that "may" be coming to pass....well, it's worth some thought. When America broke away from t...moreI'm going with 4 stars here, it isn't always the easiest book to read, but worth it. There is a lot of wisdom in this book, a lot of insight. While history hasn't borne out all his predictions, there have been enough. Sadly also, it looks as though more of the things he said may still prove to be true.

In today's atmosphere, the thoughts here compared to the reality we live in and that "may" be coming to pass....well, it's worth some thought. When America broke away from the "branch" so to speak it was a new thing in the world. No colony had ever done what was done here and it was an idealistic experiment even a dream that was watched by the world. Europe was...somewhat worried and England in particular was very unhappy about the implications. Had the War of 1812 gone differently on this side of the Atlantic we all still might be drinking tea more than coffee as it could have changed everything. But when you say "the War of 1812" in Europe their minds go to other battles and events than here. They think of the Napoleonic war.

But back to the subject. The American Revolution raised questions worldwide and things began to percolate. In France things boiled over not long after they did here. It's notable that many in the academic community are far more enamored with the French Revolution than with the American. You see it was "supposed to be" a "rational Revolution" it was a Godless revolution with all the clergy and God rejected by the leaders and much of the movement (the clergy was seen as close to the royals you see). Unfortunately the French Revolution spun out of control into a rein of terror and then into a military dictatorship.

In the wake of all this a young man (Alexis de Tocqueville) spent 9 months touring the "new" United States and when he returned to France he wrote this commenting on the social and governmental "situation" and implications.

He was torn between hopeful and...well, not so hopeful.

So I recommend the book. It's interesting, thought provoking and somewhat sobering. I leave you with one quote from said book:

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Think about it.(less)

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Oct 13, 2008

Heidi rated it

Shelves: non-fiction, read2008, literature

I read selections this time around, as I did years ago.

de Tocqueville toured and studied America not long after the French Revolution. He was hoping to glean ideas for his own country. I think what he found couldn't necessarily apply. He says we had no democratic revolution, because we began democratically. This makes sense, as our Revolution was simply an effort to keep that independent flavor, rather than lose it to our parent country.

Among the many things he observ...more

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Oct 03, 2007

Jerry Raviol rated it

· review of another edition

I read this in response to my frustration with what I saw as our inability to bring democracy to other places in the world. Chapters 1-42 and 55 - 57 are the most insightful. Others tend to drag. In 1830s de Tocqueville comes to America to figure our why a democratic revolution in France lead to anarchy and despotism, while a democratic revolution in America lead to freedom. What he finds is still relevant to our trying to bring or give democracy to others.

Two things emerge- fir...more

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Mar 19, 2008

Trashy Pit rated it

Shelves: history

Considered a must-read classic about US history and US political culture. In fact, the most over-rated book in all of history. Complete waste of your time. I'd give it zero stars if I could. Alexis spent all his time hanging with his plantation-owner buddies in the South who ran the US gov't at the time, then wrote a book about how great Democracy in the US was. Except for a couple of pages, he ignores all the main issues of US political and economic history: slavery, racism, exploitation,...more

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Nov 22, 2007

blue-collar mind rated it

Recommends it for: lucid people who find representative democracy a bit puzzling

Shelves: read-a-bit-here-and-there

I love doing that time travel thing, when you find an author who can bring you to his or her time, and you are like Samantha in Bewitched talking to Franklin while wearing her sensible 60s housewife clothes.
I read my little copy of this book for a few minutes every other day or so, much like (it occurs to me) religiousists read the bible, although I always remember that my choice was written by a youngish white European of no particular esteem who went to check out America, rather than a ...more

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Aug 10, 2011

Brian added it · review of another edition

De Tocqueville was Nostradamus with regards to his predictions for America to date. He foresaw the rise of America as a world leader economically, militarily, and culturally. He saw that the greatness of America was not due to our superior class of citizens, but rather that the average American citizen was empowered to take action to improve conditions for himself, his family, and his community and did not rely on decisions to be made for him by a distant authority. The American citizen was empo...more

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Feb 01, 2012

Elizabeth rated it

I was going to read a book about "Democracy in America," but hadn't actually read the original. How silly is that? This two volume book by Alexis de Tocqueville is about America in 1831. It should be required reading for anyone in the federal government. It's apparent that the American brand of democracy cannot simply be exported to another country. The peculiar history of the United States (and how many other people get to start with a new continent)--its individual states, commo...more

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Oct 17, 2011

Christopher rated it

· review of another edition

Be warned: the title of this book is a little misleading. De Tocqueville did not just write about democracy in America, but about democracy in general and its effects on people's habits, "mores," and beliefs. In fact, it is more of a survey on democracy rather than on America, but since America was one of the few examples of a fully formed democracy in the world at the time he wrote and he had toured extensively beforehand, many of de Tocqueville's observations are colored by his views...more

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Sep 26, 2011

S'hi rated it

So much of relevance still in this book - about how we think within the context of our social, political and economic circles. A very useful tool for considering many of the current conversations taking place which must make us question whether we are heading in the right direction or just basing our actions upon assumptions which we have not adequately examined.
Albert Einstein said:
Concepts that have proven useful in ordering things easily achieve such authority over us that we forget...more

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Apr 13, 2011

AC marked it as to-read

Shelves: 19th-century

(Let me apologies in advance, Matt -- for cluttering your review with my rather superfluous comments. I really, really don't mean it to be offensive.)

I always find your reviews to be a riot - and brilliant. You, Chris, Eric, Thomas -- Geoff_W. -- Jimmy -- you guys have been my guiding lights for weeks now... maybe months -- in this rather doomed and belated project I have of trying to find my front with my hands tied behind my back. That said…, my one talent in life (and it is no sma...more(Let me apologies in advance, Matt -- for cluttering your review with my rather superfluous comments. I really, really don't mean it to be offensive.)

I always find your reviews to be a riot - and brilliant. You, Chris, Eric, Thomas -- Geoff_W. -- Jimmy -- you guys have been my guiding lights for weeks now... maybe months -- in this rather doomed and belated project I have of trying to find my front with my hands tied behind my back. That said…, my one talent in life (and it is no small talent, I admit) has simply been the ability to find good teachers. And that's you.

I have never read Democracy in America - though, like everyone, I've been subjected to the endless stream of its quotations -- an erstwhile political junkie -- at least, until despair set in in 2004..., when I tossed the television, literally, out the window and went short the dollar.... having few of them actually made it quite easy... it is called going massively into debt... but that's a story for another day... and found the constant adulation on C-Span, in the American Media..., this paroxysm of nostalgia that this cult of de Tocqueville represents... frankly nauseating -- as if a writer of the 1830's (a writer of preindustrial France, for cryin' out loud…!) could be -- or should be a guide to America in the new millennium. It is an exercise in bad faith. And has the stench of decay about it….

What stimulated this little rant, however, is the following paragraph of J.M. Coetzee and an observation I have often had about American political discourse. The paragraph (from Coetzee's introduction to Musil's The Confusions of Young Törless) runs:

"Musil belonged to a generation of German intellectuals who experienced the successive phases of the breakdown of the European order between 189- and 1945 with particular immediacy: first, the premonitory crisis in the arts, giving rise to the various Modernist reactions; then the war and the revolutions spawned by the war, which destroyed both traditional and liberal institutions; and finally the rudderless post-war years, culminating in the Fascist seizure of power. The Man Without Qualities - a book to some extent overtaken by history during its writing - set out to diagnose this breakdown, which Musil more and more came to see as originating in the failure of Europe's liberal élite since the 1870s to recognize that the social and political doctrines inherited from the Enlightenment were not adequate to the new mass civilization growing up in the cities."

That is brilliant.

The observation is this -

Why is the American political press ("silent assassins of the republic", as Mailer trenchantly put it) so dumb... aka... What's Wrong with... the Washington Press Club...? The answer, I think, at least in part, is pretty simple.

Acceptable discourse in the United States operates within the poles of two bourgeois, liberal (small-l), center-right, political systems of thought-- which was fairly adequate to the task of describing the realities on the ground from the 1880s, say, up until the very recent past -- with only a very few exceptions (Sacco and Vanzetti..., Abby Hoffman, that sort of thing...). But political realities on the ground have widened considerably, since the collapse of the old (FDR/JFK/LBJ) Liberal Coalition -- especially on the Right... with the result that the language considered acceptable no longer reflects accurately the political forces that are driving America apart. Men like -- fill in the blank -- are called 'conservative' when, in fact, they are radicals -- radicals of the Right…; while Liberals (large-L) now include mainly neo-liberals... with a few homosexuals and blacks and professors thrown in... (since where else can *they* go....?). In other words, the American political consciousness is viewing a widening battlefield through a narrow and narrowing lens -- and so either cannot see what is happening or, when it sees it, it cannot say it.

Part of this, of course, is deliberate - the mass is kept in thrall to an ideological dream that has long since frayed and is now shattering…, and whose social basis is long, long since gone… while our friend de Tocqueville (or at least, the 'concept' of him) continues to serve as a handy mechanism for enforcing (-- and that is not too strong a word for it --) this political amnesia …
(less)

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Jan 14, 2010

Briana rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: foundations-of-american-thought

You know what's not cool? Buying a 320 page book and finding out that you have the wrong copy, which means that you only have a week to find the right copy and finish reading it, and you buy the right copy, which turns out to be 720 pages. That is not cool. That is the definition of un-coolness. Especially when you end up reading 100 pages in one night...

HOWEVER, you know what is cool? Tocqueville's writing style! (Yes, he's French...he writes like Montesquieu...) Check out this chap...more

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Jul 03, 2009

Alan Marchant rated it

Shelves: nonfiction, historical

Exploring the New World ...

... of Sociology.

I had expected that deTocqueville's classic would be a study of political technique, like an expanded version of The Prince or The Art Of War. Instead Democracy in America (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) is an original and powerful exploration of Sociology (generations before Max Weber).

deTocqueville draws on his experiences touring the United States in 1830 to make observations and speculations about the influenc...more

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Jun 29, 2009

Jake rated it

Growing up I was thankful that nowhere in my liberal arts education was I assigned to read Tocqueville’s “(On) Democracy in America”. The idea that it was written by a Frenchman always worried me, not for any particular political reasons but more so because I was afraid the connection would not be made between the author's intentions and the translation produced. Of course, there is no way to determine if the author's thoughts are properly conveyed but the translation comes across clear and re...more

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Jun 09, 2008

Maureen rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Maureen by: Neil

Shelves: history

Did you have to read this book for Political Science 101? I did, and I still have my copy of it. In this election year, it would be worth taking a look at this book again. It seems to me that, particularly in the past eight years, we have strayed off the path of the ideals that this book represents. Anyone interested in democracy, equality, and the role of the military in government should own a copy of this book. Make sure it is the unabridged one.

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Sep 16, 2009

brook rated it

This book is (of course) very dated now, but it gives the reader an excellent idea of how America came to be, and also shows how American "values" have not changed over time. Clearly Tocqueville is a bit enamored with the America that he sees, but he manages to do a thorough and not always positive review of what constitutes the country. Much of it is contrasting Americans of the time with the rest of the world. As an American, this is a valuable book to read for a better understanding...more

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May 16, 2011

Talmadge East rated it

Democracy in America has been said the be the best telling of the American Spirit (even though it was written before the Civil war) and I believe that is correct. Tocqueville's classic should be taught in every high school in America. Indeed, if I was a government teacher it would be mandatory if I had to purchase the books myself and give them away. For those that may not be familiar, Tocqueville was a Frenchman that traveled the United States and wrote a book in 2 volumes about it. He disc...more

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Oct 26, 2009

blake rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: history

I'll start by saying that I'm not sure what gives a 25 year-old rich French kid on a pleasure cruise through the New World the credibility to make completely unsupported assertions on the political and social climate of early America, and have them be accepted as gospel. After slogging through 300 or so pages, I'm exceedingly grateful that this abridged version exists, because I can't imagine ever wasting the time on the complete edition. I was interested in reading a book that has been hailed...moreI'll start by saying that I'm not sure what gives a 25 year-old rich French kid on a pleasure cruise through the New World the credibility to make completely unsupported assertions on the political and social climate of early America, and have them be accepted as gospel. After slogging through 300 or so pages, I'm exceedingly grateful that this abridged version exists, because I can't imagine ever wasting the time on the complete edition. I was interested in reading a book that has been hailed for its perpetual timeliness, foresight, and penetrating insight into early American democracy, but I was sorely disappointed on every single front.

Tocqueville does occasionally make some interesting observations. In the beginning he spends a significant amount of time talking about the political power inherent in the townships (i.e. small, local groups), which is an incredibly important point, and one still relevant today. It was also particularly interesting to me after reading Hannah Arendt's On Revolution, where she heavily emphasizes the same (Incidentally, I highly recommend Arendt's analysis of the beginning of our country and the formation of the Constitution -- it is much more penetrating than Tocqueville, mainly because she's insanely brilliant.). Later in the book, there is a 2-3 page section in chapter 34 ("How An Aristocracy May Be Created By Manufactures") that I found particularly prescient, essentially describing the division and alienation of labor about a half-century before Marx popularized the idea.

These two observations were about the extent of the positives. The rest is so mired in sweeping generalizations and arrogant condescension as to be virtually worthless. His analysis of the manners and temperament of the American people is completely irrelevant now, but couldn't have been much more relevant then, since it was based on only one man's observation, and since he was clearly writing with an aristocratic chip on his shoulder. His predictions, which are hailed as so sage, are wrong at least half the time, making him about as wise as me. My favorite was when he talked about how unlikely it would be for the U.S. to experience a civil war, and this a whopping 25 years before civil war broke out.

There are two huge oversights that led Tocqueville to severely miscalculate America's trajectory. One, the rise of corporations and their near-invincible power, was only hinted at in chapter 34, but its omission is forgiveable since the phenomenon was not necessarily intuitive. In reality, Tocqueville's "tyranny of the majority" is a red herring, because an elite oligarchy ended up controlling everything more or less by the beginning of the 20th century. His other oversight, however, was less pardonable. He spent shockingly little time talking about how easily manipulable by propaganda his tyrannical majority would be. This would essentially make them a tool of the wealthy elite. His only references to public opinion were oblique and clearly not indicating anything like the extent of the media manipulation that we started to see, again around the turn of the 20th century. His reference to a free press hints at it, but the omission of a deeper discussion is noticeable.

I could give more examples, through quotations, of some of the generalizations I'm talking about, but I honestly don't want to waste the time. Instead, I'll give my favorite quote, from chapter 48 ("Why Great Revolutions Will Become More Rare"). I like it because it is actually timely, describing pretty deftly what is going on right now in the U.S.:

. . .When property becomes so fluctuating, and the love of property so restless and so ardent, I cannot but fear that men may arrive at such a state as to regard every new theory as a peril, every innovation as an irksome toil, every social improvement as a stepping-stone to revolution, and so refuse to move altogether for fear of being moved too far. I dread, and I confess it, lest they should at last so entirely give way to a cowardly love of present enjoyment, as to lose sight of the interests of their future selves and those of their descendants; and prefer to glide along the easy current of life, rather than to make, when it is necessary, a strong and sudden effort to a higher purpose.

I must admit that overall I am glad to have gotten the general idea of what people are talking about when they refer to Tocqueville. After thinking two stars (based mostly on enjoyability and disappointed expectations), I have to go ahead with three, just because of the scope of the thing. It's darn impressive to pen a thousand page study of the political and social landscape of early America. Even if you're only right around half the time, it still takes a pair to give it a go. And I respect that.

Caveat: I read the 320 page abridged version, so some of my complaints may be simple misunderstandings due to ignorance.(less)

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Jan 01, 2008

Graham rated it

So damned important that I forced myself to read the whole thing. Important for the myths that it created about America as well as the truths it observes. Nothing necessarily radical or progressive here, but still hugely influential. Should be read because every asshole politician likes to cite it. The Penguin Classics version is the one you want because it is unabridged.

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Oct 25, 2011

Paul rated it

This is one of the most quoted books ever and now I understand why. Written in the early 1800s, Alexis de Tocueville, a French visitor to America, studied America as an emerging nation and wrote an amazing tribute to the benefits of a free society based on a constitution that allows equality of all men. He critiqued American government, business, eduction, institutions and the arts, as well as Americans in general. His perspectives give new light to the things we take for granted every day. T...more

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Jul 31, 2010

Jeremy added it · review of another edition

Shelves: politics

My biggest reservation about this is that Tocqueville seems to be using such broad strokes. Even in the middle of the 1800's I find it hard to believe that there is a definitive American character which you can just codify and examine at will. That being said, he does make some really smart observations about the problems of individualism versus collective action and how Americans tend not to really examine the sorts of hypocrisies which both of these kinds of action and belief entail. I think i...more

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Nov 26, 2008

Emily rated it

Vielleicht kein sehr lesbares Buch, ähnlich wie Madame de Staël(alter, langer Schinken). Aber Tocqueville sieht um 1830 in einem ihm fremden Land die Zukunft voraus: Er beschreibt eine Gesellschaft, in der Freiheitsrechte und eine freie Presse bestehen, in der es das Ideal der Chancengleichheit gibt, die demokratisch organisiert ist. 170 Jahre später sind wir fasziniert von Amerika, weil diese Gesellschaft einen schwarzen Afrikaner an die Spitze ihres politischen Systems gestellt hat. Das hat To...more

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Dec 29, 2009

Jason Pettus rated it

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called classics, then write reports on whether or not they deserve the label

Essay #35: Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville (1835)

The story in a nutshell:
Although these days we take it f...more

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Feb 06, 2012

John rated it

· review of another edition

I read Volume 1 in this edition, and Volume 2 in the edition translated & edited by Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop published in 2000 by The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226805328. I found Volume 1 to be more intriguing, but portions of Volume 2 were very enlightening. Both took a long time to finish because of the author's style of writing, and because the typeface in both is smaller. I am amazed that Tocqueville was able to grasp so much from observing people, society, governme...more

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Jan 22, 2009

Boyce added it

This is one of those "ought to read books." I've owned it for 34 years and finally I'm reading it. It's long. It was translated from French into 1830s English. Brilliant, insightful, and clearly written. de Tocqueville compares American democracy, circa 1830, to France and England. He is an aristocrat and his advocacy of democracy is begrugeing, but he saw it as the only viable future. Sample insight: universal jury duty exposes American of all classes to the legal system, the rule of ...more

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May 16, 2011

M rated it

Shelves: ppe, non-fiction, 2011

This is... well, ridiculous. I'm sure that some people can see the loveliness in the writing style and all that, but to be quite honest, I can't, and neither do I have the patience for this. Only reason I managed to read any at all is because I have an equally ridiculous essay (okay, not entirely true, the topic isn't that bad), but a lot of this is unnecessary. Two stars because I'm sure there was at least a little point in there somewhere. And other people seem inspired by it. Or quote him at ...more

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Dec 31, 2010

Les rated it

This is not a book to read cover to cover all at one time. It is, however, a book you will eagerly anticipate reading 25 pages at a time. He provides a wonderful insight into the American way of thinking prior to The Civil War and, quite frankly, helps us understand why we Americans think the way we do about our government and political system today. It is easy to forget that only about a hundred years ago our republican form of government was only an experiment..

I've always heard a...more

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Aug 04, 2011

Lauren Hopkins rated it

How can you not like Tocqueville? For a book written nearly 200 years ago, it's a pretty awesome and accurate account of American political life. Tocqueville is like a Nostradamus when it comes to how the US government would turn out...what he sees as innate flaws do end up playing a negative role, and what he sees as strong assets are attributes that continue to work today. The language also isn't too drab/old school...it's obviously not a thrilling page turner, but his ideas and hypotheses abo...more

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Mar 20, 2011

Kate rated it

I originally hated this book and be extension, de Toqueville: it was college and the format in which we read this did little to better understand or even like the book. Like many things, I picked my original college copy up and read it after having traveled throughout Europe, engaging in a variety of political conversations. In short, I have come to enjoy this book, agreeing with another reader that all should read this. De Toqueville captured the essence of the American people and government...more

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Feb 28, 2011

Elizabeth rated it

Shelves: wem, historical, nonfiction

First let me say I did choose to read this on my own. I read it because of club I'm in. It was not easy reading and I plodded through.The 4 stars is for of the message. However it was quite insightful as to the history of democracy in our country through the eyes of a Frenchman.
The author saw the potential of democracy along with the downfalls. He could have been a prophet. I'd like to see what he would say of the US now.
There was a lot of slogging but he had an amazing perception. ...moreFirst let me say I did choose to read this on my own. I read it because of club I'm in. It was not easy reading and I plodded through.The 4 stars is for of the message. However it was quite insightful as to the history of democracy in our country through the eyes of a Frenchman.
The author saw the potential of democracy along with the downfalls. He could have been a prophet. I'd like to see what he would say of the US now.
There was a lot of slogging but he had an amazing perception. Take this quote:"I see an innumerable multitude of men, alike and equal, constantly circling around in pursuit of the petty and banal pleasures with which they glut their souls. Each one of them, withdrawn into himself, is almost unaware of the fate of the rest. . . . Over this kind of men stands an immense, protective power which is alone responsible for securing their enjoyment and watching over their fate."

He's talking about democratic despotism. I believe we have that to a point. People looking out for their own interests and gaining in the material.

He goes on to say that the concentration of power and the subjection of individuals will increase in the democratic nations, not only in the same proportion as their equality, but in the same proportion as their ignorance.

And though people love freedom, they also want uniformity, equality; they want to fit in so in order to achieve this they end up becoming a slave and it's society that holds the chain. How true is that!

He goes on to say how such a power does not destroy, it prevents existence.

He writes how to fight against the despotism and that is with free press, which we really don't have, religion; as long as it's not Christian, proper mores; ha, does our culture even know what that is?, local self government of which most is corrupt, and a strong independent judiciary.

In the end Tocqueville writes, "The nations of our day cannot prevent conditions of equality from spreading in their midst. But it depends upon themselves whether equality is to lead to servitude or freedom, knowledge or barbarism, prosperity or wretchedness." He hoped that through his insights, we would be better able to direct ourselves toward freedom and prosperity.(less)

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About Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (July 29, 1805 – April 16, 1859) was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes: 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in western societies.
...moreAlexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (July 29, 1805 – April 16, 1859) was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes: 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in western societies.

Democracy in America (1835), his major work, published after his travels in the United States, is today considered an early work of sociology and political science. An eminent representative of the classical liberal political tradition, Tocqueville was an active participant in French politics, first under the July Monarchy (1830–1848) and then during the Second Republic (1849–1851) which succeeded to the February 1848 Revolution. He retired from political life after Louis Napoléon Bonaparte's December 2, 1851 coup, and thereafter began work on The Old Regime and the Revolution, Volume I. After obtaining a law degree, Alexis de Tocqueville was named auditor-magistrate at the court of Versailles. There, he met Gustave de Beaumont, a prosecutor substitute, who collaborated with him on various literary works. Both were sent to the United States to study the penitentiary system. During this trip, they wrote Du système pénitentiaire aux Etats-Unis et de son application (1832). Back in France, Tocqueville became a lawyer. He met the English economist Nassau William Senior in 1833, and they became good friends and corresponded for many years.[1] He published his master-work, De la démocratie en Amérique, in 1835. The success of this work, an early model for the science that would become known as sociology, led him to be named chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) in 1837, and to be elected the next year to the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. In 1841 he was elected to the Académie française.

Tocqueville, who despised the July Monarchy (1830–1848), began his political career in the same period. Thus, he became deputy of the Manche department (Valognes), a position which he maintained until 1851. In parliament, he defended abolitionist views and upheld free trade, while supporting the colonization of Algeria carried on by Louis-Philippe's regime. Tocqueville was also elected general counsellor of the Manche in 1842, and became the president of the department's conseil général between 1849 and 1851.

Apart from Canada, Tocqueville also made an observational tour of England, producing Memoir on Pauperism. In 1841 and 1846, he traveled to Algeria. His first travel inspired his Travail sur l'Algérie, in which he criticized the French model of colonization, based on an assimilationist view, preferring instead the British model of indirect rule, which did not mix different populations together. He went as far as openly advocating racial segregation between the European colonists and the "Arabs" through the implementation of two different legislative systems (a half century before its effective implementation with the 1881 Indigenous code).

After the fall of the July Monarchy during the February 1848 Revolution, Tocqueville was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly of 1848, where he became a member of the Commission charged with the drafting of the new Constitution of the Second Republic (1848–1851). He defended bicameralism (two parliamentary chambers) and the election of the President of the Republic by universal suffrage. As the countryside was thought to be more conservative than the laboring population of Paris, universal suffrage was conceived as a means to block the revolutionary spirit of Paris.

During the Second Republic, Tocqueville sided with the parti de l'Ordre against the "socialists" and workers. A few days after the February insurrection, he believed a violent clash between the workers' population agitating in favor of a "Democratic and Social Republic" and (less)

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Books by Alexis de Tocqueville

The Old Regime and the French Revolution

Democracy in America, Volume 2 (Vintage Classics)

Democracy in America, Volume 1 (Vintage Classics)

Memoir on Pauperism: Does Public Charity Produce an Idle and Dependent Class of Society?

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Quotes from Democracy in America

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.” — 72 people liked it

“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.” — 28 people liked it

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