Democracy in America

Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville, best known simply as Alexis de Tocqueville, was born in France on July 29, 1805. His family history is intimately tied to French political history, specifically the aftermath of the 1789 revolution that toppled the absolute monarchy. The Reign of Terror, the period of radical violence in the 1790s, was particularly formative for Tocqueville’s parents. As the radical Jacobins sought to purge all opposition, including aristocrats, many of his family members were executed. Napoleon’s reign as emperor of the French and his efforts to conquer Europe followed the revolutionary era, and the monarchy was restored in 1815.

Tocqueville entered politics from a young age. Due to his family’s aristocratic ties, he quickly found favor under the renewed monarchy of Louis XVIII. Political turmoil continued to influence his career, however. Though the restored monarchy was constitutional—it relied on the support of parliament to govern and enact its agenda—Charles X was much more sympathetic to noble causes and sought to restore some elements of the absolute monarchy. In July 1830 another revolution broke out and Louis Philippe, a cousin of the former king, took power. Tocqueville saw these events as proof that the age of aristocracy was in decline and parliamentary democracy, similar to England’s, lay in France’s future. Despite his personal views, he soon found it necessary to leave France because of his family’s ties to the former government. With a close friend, Gustave de Beaumont, Tocqueville left for America, ostensibly to study prison reform.

Tocqueville and his friend remained in the United States for nine months in 1831 and 1832. The two produced a joint work on American prisons, while Tocqueville released the first volume of Democracy in America. Tocqueville’s work emphasized the growing equality in America and the world, and his hopes that personal freedom and flourishing would remain possible in a democratic political system. The first volume made Tocqueville famous, gaining him domestic accolades such as the Legion of Honor and membership in the French Academy, a distinguished learned society.

The second volume of Democracy in America was published in 1840 and focused less on American society specifically and more on the cultural, political, and social effects of democracy in general. In this volume Tocqueville was increasingly concerned that democracy might preserve some of its forms but still curtail individual initiative and freedom. His increased pessimism was likely due to his disenchantment with the French monarchy under Louis-Philippe, particularly its restrictions on civil liberties and increasing involvement in the economy.

Tocqueville became a member of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of France’s parliament, in 1839. He was not a particularly successful legislator, but he did predict that the monarchy would fall to revolution in 1848. The 1848 revolution saw new demands from workers and radical socialists, which Tocqueville found personally repugnant, as they would lead to an expanded role for the state in the lives of individuals. His personal political career was more successful in this period, however, as he won re-election to the Constituent Assembly, helped draft the constitution for France’s Second Republic, and became minister of foreign affairs.

He fell out of favor when he opposed Louis Napoleon’s dictatorship and returned to writing and an intellectual career. In 1856 he published another of his notable works, The Old Regime and the Revolution, in which he argued that the revolution did little to alter French political culture and made dictatorial rule as likely under one system as the other. The work restored his international fame, and he visited England in 1857. He died prior to finishing this work at the age of 53.

Though Tocqueville’s work became less popular in France over time, due to his aristocratic ties and association with classical liberal politics, it enjoyed steady popularity in the United States. Americans continually quote his observations of their society, and his work was especially popular during the Cold War because of his concerns that the state might usurp individual liberty and become totalitarian.