About the author
French aristocrat, historian, and statesman (1805–1859) who travelled to the United States in 1831 ostensibly to study its prison system and returned with a two-volume analysis of democracy as a social condition rather than merely a form of government. A liberal who distrusted both the ancien régime and the revolutionary tradition, Tocqueville was among the first to identify the tension between equality and liberty, and to warn that democracy could produce its own soft despotism — the gentle tyranny of public opinion and administrative centralization.
Synopsis
A study of American democracy that explores equality, associations, religion, local government, individualism, and majority power.
Quote to notice
Direct quote · Public domain“I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.”
Tocqueville worries that democracy can create social pressure and conformity even without formal censorship.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Marx, Rousseau, or more radical democratic critiques.
Reading note
Good for understanding democracy as a culture and social condition, not just a voting system.
Best paired with
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty.