Alexis de Tocqueville

(1805-1859)

Democracy in America
 Alexis de Tocqueville
 Born in Paris July 29, 1805
 Father was a royalist from Normandy, who
supported the Bourbon Monarchy
 Great Grandfather was a liberal aristocrat
killed in the French Revolution
 At age 16 began college to study
philosophy
 Began to have an uncertainty about the
French Govt.
 Alexis de Tocqueville
 Finished College at age 18, then moved to Paris
to study law.
 Came to America to “study” prison reform, but
really came to gain knowledge of American
political development
 Later visited England to study the British system
of Govt.
 Published 1st part of Democracy in America
1835, it was well accepted through Europe
 Married Mary Motley, an Englishwoman, in 1835
 Alexis de Tocqueville
 Second part of Democracy was published
5 years later, and was not as accepted as
his first , criticizing France. It was highly
praised in England
 Became Left-Winged, then New Left
Winged
 Rejected the idea of political agitation that
the Left Wing rallied support for
 Predicted The French Revolution
 Democracy in America
 Explains how the majority controls the
political spectrum in the USA by
 Majority electing members of the legislature
“immediately, and for a very brief term, in
order to subject them”
 Majority also elects the President who tries to
please the majority to get re-elected
 Democracy in America
 Tocqueville believes that if a
legislative power that represents
the majority exist, but does not
follow the majority, this power will
retain a degree of uncontrolled
authority, and would still be free
and democratic, without becoming
a tyranny.
 Democracy in America
 Says that America is not really a land of
free speech
 “within these barriers an author may write
whatever he pleases, but he will repent it if he ever
step beyond them.”
 “Before he published his opinions, he imagined
that he held them in common with many others;
but no sooner has he declared them openly, than
he is loudly censured by his overbearing
opponents, whilst those who think, without having
the courage to speak, like him, abandon him in
silence.”
 Democracy in America
 Believes that Lawyers are like nobles in
America, because “the wealthy, the noble, and
the prince are excluded from the government,
they are sure to occupy the stations in their own
right,”…”since they are the only men of
information and sagacity, beyond the sphere of
the people, who can be the object of the popular
choice”
 Believes that lawyers in America form the
highest political classes, and will remain
conservative.
 Democracy in America
 Believes that Americans are not as
passionate for political gain, rather
commercial gains
 That the rich ( or when poor become rich)
rather abide by the law, because with
order comes prosperity.
 Democracy in America
Questions
 What is the tyranny of the majority and
how does it operate?

 How can this tyranny be prevented?

 Was the United States a real democracy in

the 1830’s?