Democracy On America Tocqueville Analysis

Like many people Alexis De Tocqueville set out to do something while accomplishing something else. Tocqueville was born in France in 1805 to an aristocratic family with connections to both the church and the monarchy. He then grew to have a successful academic career. Tocqueville then was sent to America in 1831 by the French government to study the American penal system. While doing his work in America with his colleague Gustavo de Beaumont studying the American prison system by a 9-month journey through eastern America Tocqueville became very interested in American society and the political system as a whole. For he saw it as a good example of what post-revolutionary France could be like. As a result he veered off course and used his work

The United States despite having high levels of freedom also established good equality throughout its citizens. He goes on to say that for the government to be able to establish freedom they have to recognize the sovereignty of the people, and that this very important in The United States where it is recognized not only by mores but also by law. These ideas are deeply bedded within America and a prime example is the separation of powers that are entrenched within the Government. Not just the separation in the federal government but in state and local government as well. Despite all of his newly found knowledge he was still amazed by the level of equality in the United State, he thought that this was only possible because of the administrative decentralization both in the federal and local government. In chapter 3 Tocqueville says “the condition of society is normally the result of circumstances.” This is a good explanation for what America was a how other countries were no able to find balance between equality and freedom like the United States had. What America had built was a system that could not work in other places around the globe. For example on of the reasons that everyone that everyone felt equal was because of their education levels. Everyone went to

Which at times is not the best and there are weaknesses that accompany it. One that is both good and bad is that people in these such states have the tendency to bring the higher class to their level, the class that in another society would have become aristocratic or the leaders. Hence there is always movement within the economic classes he said that is the natural inclination people have to act as a leveler. It can also cause what we saw in The House of Representatives where they were uncultured lower and lower class compared to the Senate. The explanation for this is that the majority of citizens are not higher class hence they don’t have much leisure time, and as a result they are not very educated, at least not as much as a Senator. Then this less educated citizens elect their representatives, which as stated above are less educated and less superior to the common people and usually not because of hatred but because they don’t like superiority. For this reason the American people don’t always elect those which might be the best rulers but those that seem the most appealing to