Bio: (1805-1859) French political scientist, sociologist, and historian. Alexis de Tocqueville was born into an aristocratic family and attended the Faber Lyceum in Metz. During his life, he worked as a French diplomat in the United States, was a member of the French Parliament, and was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Louis Bonaparte. Tocqueville did not have a university career but was a member of the French Academy of Sciences. Tocqueville traveled to the United States in 1831 as a member of an official government commission, under the pretext that he wanted to study the American prison system, while his real desire was to examine American society, everyday life, and the political system in the United States. As a result of that journey and field research, his most famous, two-volume work, Democracy in America (1835, 1840), was written.

The first volume of Democracy in America explores American society and institutions, while the second deals with the general idea of ​​democracy and the forms of its manifestation in the United States, France, and England. He divides all political systems into only two types - democratic and aristocratic. Tocqueville uses these two political systems as ideal types so that they encompass all of history and characterize all levels of society. Democratization is a long-term process whose roots are in the development of local institutions and political freedoms in the cities of Western Europe. The introduction of firearms into war technology erased class differences in war, while the technology of printed books spread the ideas of equality and freedom across the continent. The Protestant Reformation also, by introducing the idea of ​​a personal relationship with God, greatly reduced the monopoly that the (Catholic) Church, before that, had for the salvation of the soul. The colonization of the American continent provided an opportunity for people on the new continent to achieve a rise on the social ladder that would be unattainable for them in Europe, due to their social background.

Tocqueville takes the notion of national character from Montesquieu (Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu) and uses it in his analysis of the functioning of democracy in America. The United States represents a society without an aristocratic history, and its national character is characterized by a commitment to the ideas of personal and political freedoms and legal equality. Individuals are motivated by the desire to achieve personal success, social cohesion is maintained by local self-government, and there is no need for a rigid social hierarchy or a strong centralized state. America is characterized by a spontaneous form of people's sovereignty, and it is nurtured and strengthened by the effects of lifestyle, upbringing, religion, and law.

American democracy and its commitment to the ideals of political freedom and equality had three main sources. The first refers to the geographical position, which reduced the military threats and enabled access to vast expanses of fertile land. Another source is the Constitution adopted by the former colonies, which emphasized federalism and the protection of political freedoms. The third source of democracy, the most important in Tocqueville's opinion, was the many variants of Protestant religions, all of which promoted the idea of ​​freedom, so freedom became part of American tradition and customs. This tradition of freedom is evident in the full protection, according to the Constitution, of freedom of the press, as well as in the formation of political, religious, civil, and other associations at the local level.

On the other hand, democracy and the personal freedom and legal equality that go with it, threaten the tyranny of the majority, increase the number of mediocrities, and lead to individualistic behavior aimed at getting rich. All this would increase social isolation and enable despotism to develop. Tocqueville explored the tensions in American society between the opposing imperatives of democracy - the egalitarian character of democratic societies that successfully eliminates the despotism that exists in feudalism, and the insufficient integration of the individual into the social being. Thus, if democracy is not controlled and thus becomes irresponsible, it can produce too much individualism (a neologism coined by Tocqueville himself) and lead to a new form of despotism.

The greatest danger from the emergence of the "tyranny of the majority" is the possibility that public opinion in the United States will begin to believe in the idea that the attitude of the majority of the population should have absolute sovereignty. In America, democratic institutions have enabled individuals to become involved in local political and civic organizations, resulting in a high level of local autonomy. Local associations, because they promote cooperation and solidarity, are precisely the factor that is the main barrier to excessive individualism and the emergence of an atomized society and dictatorship. In America, too, the abolition of aristocratic privileges led to equality of social opportunities, because all professions were open to all citizens. There is a broad and strong middle class in this country, as well as great social mobility. A factor that contributed to the strength of American democracy is the fact that there was no strong and developed capitalist class.

In his book Ancient Regime and the Revolution (1856), Tocqueville examines how the collapse of the aristocratic order and the revolution in France took place, as well as the long-term consequences of those events. Citing the reasons for the outbreak of the French Revolution, he singles out several factors. Conflicts within the aristocratic elite, conflicts between the aristocracy and the growing bourgeoisie, the spread of freedom and equality among the citizenry, the excessive centralization of administrative and political power by the crown, and the financial crisis in the decade before the Revolution were the most important contributing factors. to make the change of the old regime certain. Tocqueville especially emphasizes the disastrous influence of political centralization on political and social institutions that acted as a link between the government and ordinary people - craft guilds, local assemblies, and others. Centralization, restriction of political freedoms, abolition of intermediary institutions, and weakening of local public political life, led to excessive individualism, atomization of society, and general dissatisfaction in all classes.

The later failure of the development of democracy in the post-revolutionary period, Tocqueville attributes to the aspirations of both the republican and monarchical regimes in France to continue with the bureaucratic centralization of state power. In France, there was a sharp equalization of the social hierarchy after the French Revolution, but at the same time the institutions that enabled the integration of individuals into the wider society were disbanded, and this led to revolutionary despotism. The revolution drastically diminished the position and influence of the Catholic Church, which had previously acted as a unifying factor, and thus represented an obstacle to the development of complete individualism. In the post-revolutionary period, no institution could substitute the unifying action of the Catholic Church.

Tocqueville's interpretation of historical processes is midway between methodological individualism and historical determinism. There are some general regularities in history, but the events themselves are incomparable. However, although there is no deeper meaning or order in historical events, the range of possibilities for the unfolding of random historical events cannot be greater than the wider social and political circumstances allow. Political order, economic relations, social institutions, and collective mentality and customs act as factors that guide historical processes, but individual and collective actors have the freedom to think and make decisions that influence their choice of strategies. When interpreting history, it is necessary to decipher the spirit of the time and the mentality of certain narrow social groups, as well as the people as a whole. Class analysis is also a very useful methodological tool that allows an understanding of the causes of major historical events. In class analysis, Tocqueville prioritizes collective-psychological processes and class self-awareness, as well as awareness of other classes and their interests.        

Main works

Du système pénitentaire aux États-Unis et de son application en France  (1833);

De la démocratie en Amérique, 2 vols. (1835, 1840);

L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution (1856).

Works translated into English:

Democracy in America (2021, in French 1835, 1840);

The Old Regime and the French Revolution (2014, in French 1856).