Tocqueville's visit to the Americas
In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont, both French,
were sent by the French government to study the American prison
system. They arrived in New York City in May of that year and spent
nine months traveling around the United States, taking notes not
only on prisons, but on all aspects of American society, including
the nation's economy and its political system. The pair of men
also briefly visited Canada, spending a few days in the summer
of 1831 in what was then Lower Canada (modern-day Quebec) and Upper
Canada (modern-day Ontario).
After they returned
to France in February 1832, the two men submitted their penal
report, entitled Du système pénitentaire
aux États-Unis et de son application en France, in 1833.
Beaumont would soon write a novel about race relations in the United
States. Tocqueville, on the other hand, who was fascinated by American
politics, wrote an analytical political and social tract, Democracy
in America, which would become the far more influential
work.
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Summary
The primary focus of Democracy in America is
an analysis of why republican representative democracy
has succeeded in the United States when it failed in so
many other places. He seeks to apply the functional aspects
of democracy in America to what he sees as the failings
of democracy in his native France.
Tocqueville also speculates on the future of democracy in
the United States, discussing both possible threats to democracy
and possible dangers of democracy, including his belief that
democracy has a tendency to degenerate into what he calls "soft
despotism" as well as describing the tyranny of the
majority, a problem in all democracies. He also observed
that the strong role religion played in the United States
was due to its separation from the government, a separation
all parties found agreeable. He contrasts this to France
where there was what he perceived to be an unhealthy antagonism
between democrats and religious people, which he relates
to the connection between church and state. |
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Importance
'Democracy in America' was published in numerous
editions in the 19th century. It was immediately popular in both
Europe and the United States. By the twentieth century, it had
become a classic work of political science, social science, and
history. It is commonly assigned reading for undergraduates majoring
in the political or social sciences. Tocqueville's work is often
acclaimed for making a number of predictions which were eventually
borne out. Tocqueville correctly anticipates the potential of the
debate over the abolition of slavery to tear apart the United States
(as it indeed did in the American Civil War). He also predicts
the rise of the United States and Russia as superpowers.
This CD contains both full volumes. Volume
1 was printed in 1899 and Volume 2 was printed in 1840.
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