person1805–1859

Alexis de Tocqueville

Disciplines:

Summary

French political thinker and historian — author of Democracy in America (1835–40) and The Old Regime and the Revolution — who produced the most penetrating external analysis of American democracy and predicted the soft despotism of modern mass democracy.

Core Contribution

Creates the analysis of democratic culture — Tocqueville's Democracy in America identified the dangers of democratic equality (tyranny of the majority, soft despotism, individualism destroying civic engagement) while affirming democracy's inevitability and value; his predictions about American democracy have proven more accurate than any comparable analysis.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Came to America to study its prison system and wrote the definitive analysis of its democracy — his official purpose (studying Sing Sing for prison reform) was the cover that allowed a minor official to travel; the world's most important political analysis was produced as a pretext
Predicted in 1840 that the US and Russia would one day divide the world between themselves — the two countries most unlike each other in his analysis would become the world's two superpowers a century later; no other 19th century political forecast has been more precisely confirmed

Notable Works & Achievements

Democracy in America

Recollections

The Old Regime and the Revolution

Historical Influences

Montesquieu Pascal Guizot Madison and The Federalist Papers

Intellectual Lineage

Paris Law Tocqueville estate American tour Académie française French National Assembly

Contemporaries & Peers

John Stuart Mill Gustave de Beaumont Nassau Senior

Minds Influenced

Political science

Intellectual Posterity

Democracy in America Soft despotism Tyranny of the majority Tocqueville as democracy analyst

Discussing