Customer Reviews

Democracy In America, V2

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Alexis De Tocqueville was simply of one of the great social scientists writing about America and Democracy. From reading the book I deduced that Tocqueville was a social scientist before Marx! He compared European culture and government with the fledgling culture and democracy he observed in America. He was very much impressed with what he saw taking place in America in the 1830's and hoped it would spread to Europe. At first he believed that America's prosperity was simply due to geography and its distance from powerful neighbors, he abandoned this idea after his visit to America. He came to realize that the West was not being peopled "by new European immigrants to America, but by Americans who he believed had little adversity to taking risks." Tocqueville found that Americans were the most broadly educated and politically advanced people in the world and one of the reasons for the success of our form of government. He also foretold America's industrial preeminence and strength through the unfettered spread of ideas and human industry.

Tocqueville also saw the insidious damage that the institution of slavery was causing the country and predicted some 30 years before the Civil War that slavery would probable cause the states to fragment from the union. He also predicted the emergence of stronger states rights over the power of the federal government. He held fast to his belief that the greatest danger to democracy was the trend toward the concentration of power by the federal government. He predicted wrongly that the union would probably break up into two or three countries because of regional interests and differences. This idea is the only one about America that he gets wrong. Despite some of his misgivings, Tocqueville, saw that democracy is an "inescapable development" of the modern world. The arguments in the "Federalist Papers" were greater then most people realized. He saw a social revolution coming that continues throughout the world today.

Tocqueville realizes at the very beginning of the "industrial revolution" how industry, centralization, and democracy strengthened each other and moved forward together. I am convinced that Tocqueville is still the preeminent observer of America but is also the father of social science. A must read for anyone interested in American history, political philosophy or the social sciences.