What did Alexis de Tocqueville think of the United States?

As “Democracy in America” revealed, Tocqueville believed that equality was the great political and social idea of his era, and he thought that the United States offered the most advanced example of equality in action.

Which principles did Alexis de Tocqueville warn that the US lacked?

Alexis de Tocqueville warned about the “tyranny of the majority” in a democracy, and advocates of the rights of minorities have warned that the courts needed to protect those rights by reversing efforts by voters to terminate the rights of an unpopular minority.

Why is Alexis de Tocqueville important to this period quizlet?

He was a french sociologist and political theorist that traveled to the United States in 1831 to study its prisons and returned with a wealth of broader observations that he codified in “Democracy of America” (1835) which was one of the most influential books of the 19th century.

What is Alexis de Tocqueville most famous for?

Introduction. Alexis de Tocqueville is best known for Democracy in America, which he wrote after spending 10 months of 1831 and 1832 in the United States on a mission from France to study American prisons (then considered progressive).

What did de Tocqueville mean by the tyranny of the majority?

According to Tocqueville, the power of the majority arises from the fact that in a democracy every individual is, politically, the equal of every other individual. In this situation, the greatest power will always be the largest number of individuals who combine their strength to act together: normally, a majority.

How did De Tocqueville describe revolution?

Tocqueville considered economic independence as necessary to the preservation of his own intellectual independence. He thus viewed pressures of the dependent poor for state welfare and of the unemployed for state employment as the initial steps to a universal and degrading dependence on the state by all social classes.

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