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    Democracy in America
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    Democracy in America
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    Democracy in America
    Audiobook4 hours

    Democracy in America

    Written by Alexis de Tocqueville

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    In 1831, a Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in New York convinced that the democratic spirit America had embraced would eventually spread across Europe. Democracy in America, a treatise on democratic government written from his fresh perspective as an outsider, is now a classic document of political history.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books Audio
    Release dateMar 11, 2008
    ISBN9781440781681
    Author

    Alexis de Tocqueville

    Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) was born in Verneuil, France. A historian and political scientist, he came to the United States in 1831 to report on the prison system. His experiences would later become the basis for his classic study Democracy in America.

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    Reviews for Democracy in America

    4/5

    16 ratings11 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Wonderful! This book gives such a honest unbiased view on America! America is unique and wonderful, the Democratic Republic that exists is the best form of government.
    • 3/5
      In a course I took the professor took about this book and it sounded very interesting. But when I finally read the book, it was hard to follow and I realized I liked the professor's explanation of the book better.
    • 3/5
      Dated, but interesting
    • 5/5
      This is a must have/must read for anyone who is interested in American history. Tocqueville gives a great explanation of America and its government. It is sometimes difficult to read because it was written by a Frenchman many, many years ago but that can be overlooked. Of note, many of Tocqueville's predictions about the state of world affairs turned out to be accurate. Overall, it's a must read for anyone.
    • 4/5
      There are so many ways to consider this book, I almost don't know where to start. First, one can think of it as a rich portrait of the United States in the 1830s, with a focus on political life but with social, cultural, and economic life examined as well. One can also appreciate this book as a view of the US from the perspective of a foreigner. Tocqueville flatters Americans quite often in this book, but he also makes numerous comparisons to European nations and points out what he sees as the fundamental differences in systems of government. One can also judge how well this work has stood the test of time and to what extent it still describes America today. I would argue that while many would like to say the country Tocqueville depicts is still in existence, he would also find the US much changed. The observances made about wealth, shared power with the people, and vast ambitions are starting to show their age - to the extent that Tocqueville might recognize different forces at work than those he focused on in this work.
    • 5/5
      Alexis de Tocqueville last updated this work in 1848, 15 years after the original publication. He wrote it as a comparative sociological treatise, giving his forecast for the evolution of modern government as a lesson for post-monarchy France. The first book takes us through the political and governmental structure of US law. the detail is sufficient to allow a close look at such things as the local governing units (it is the township in Mass. and the county in Ohio). The second book contains the more philosophical commentary on the cultural and sociological factors -- and where they might lead. The trend toward equality and the natural tendency in turn toward centralization of power is a major theme throughout his work. He does point out a number of mitigating factors against each that should be encouraged. Another central theme is the importance of "mores" in the classical sense defined as the "whole moral and intellectual state of a people." His writing style is wonderful and very organized, with each section summarized with an abstract and each sub-section summarized by a single paragraph or sentence. The entire book is concluded with: "The nations of our day cannot prevent conditions of equality from spreading in their midst. But it depends upon themselves whether equality is to lead to servitude or freedom, knowledge or barbarism, prosperity or wretchedness."In laying the foundation, he mentions a number of great "leveling" factors that led to the trend toward equality. The development of trade and technology is shown to have taken the last remnants of nobility by surprise. Inheritance laws drove equality by weakening the preservation of estates. At the same time, the colonial laws in the US were both very democratic and yet often completely intolerant of religious or moral behaviors. The example of adulterous couples being sentenced to being whipped and then married is a sufficient example. He also discusses the relation between democracy and religion, at one point calling Catholicism the ultimate democracy and frequently showing the tolerance and commonality that results from the varied and varying religious sects. "Classical historians taught how to command; those of our own time teach next to nothing but how to obey." (p. 496). He observes that manufacturing leads to an equivalent of aristocracy with craftsmen slipping into the level of nothing, but workers and industrialists becoming a separate class.Regarding American government, he says that as an elected official, the President is a follower of the common will rather than a leader "The two main weapons used by the parties to assure success are newspapers and associations." (p. 179). He describes a constant lawmaking without lasting focus, resulting in a series of ideas half-completed (his example is the prison reform that created new prisons and a whole system more like medieval dungeons than before). Lawyers are America's aristocracy: "So hidden at the bottom of a lawyer's soul, one finds some of the tastes and habits of an aristocracy. They share its instinctive preference for order and its natural love of formalities; like it, they conceive a great distaste for the behavior of the multitude and secretly scorn the government of the people." (p. 264) "A French lawyer is just a man of learning, but an English or an American one is somewhat like the Egyptian priests, being, as they were, the only interpreter of an occult science." (p. 267). Three key factors to the stability of the US democracy are: the federal form giving the power of a great republic and the security of a small one, communal institutions to moderate the despotism of the majority, and the organization of judicial power. Congressman give speeches and muddle on in order to have text and quotes to send home to consituents, often saying things they don't understand themselves, so that "the debates of that great assembly are frequently vague and perplexed, seeming to be dragged, rather than march, to the intended goal." Because of the necessity of individualism, democracy tends to make people forget their ancestry and remove themselves from their contemporaries; two methods by which Americans combat the effect of individualism are newspapers and associations (p.508)."As equality spreads and men individually become less strong, they ever increasingly let themselves glide with the stream of the crowd and find it hard to maintain alone an opinion abandoned by the rest." (p. 520). Comparing America to Europe, de Tocqueville observes few truly uneducated and few truly learned. When education is ending in America, it is just beginning for a European. Punishment is less severe but more likely. Impeachment is an administrative matter rather than a judicial one. It is lesser men who pursue politics as the more ambitious turn to industry. The marriage tie is more voluntary and fidelity adhered to, resulting in a more stable social infrastructure. Religion more powerful by being separate from the political. He observes a literary and artistic void due to concentration on industry, lack of leisure class, and lack of education. People learn government through participation and exercise of their rights; are more independent, more inward, but deny anything they cannot understand because they are more likely to have solved everything to get where they are. Democracy came about without an internal revolution, which meant no drastic change and subsequent stabilization. He sees less theoretical research but better application, "These same American who have never discovered a general law of mechanics have changed the face of the world by introducing a new machine for navigation." (p. 463). Women have more time to become individuals before marriage. Americans move around too much to allow manners to be established (because no chance for convention to solidify and no permanent relationship about which to worry). War, including duels, battle, and feuds, are considered worse than bankruptcy. People do not reach for ambitious goals. "... life is spent in coveting small prizes within reach." (p. 629).Regarding democracy itself, "It really is difficult to imagine how people who have entirely given up managing their own affairs could make a wise choice of those who are to do that for them. One should never expect a liberal, energetic, and wise government to originate in the votes of a people of servants." (p. 694). Among his final observations: "In democracies ignorance as much as equality will increase the concentration of power and the subjection of the individual." (p. 676)
    • 4/5
      The book's basis was a nine month visit to America by De Tocqueville in 1831, ostensibly to study America's prison system. It was an interesting time to visit America, half-way between the establishment of the constitution and the Civil War. In the course of the visit he met former president John Quincy Adams, then incumbent Andrew Jackson, Senator Daniel Webster and Sam Houston among others. He traveled the length and breath of a country much smaller than what we see on the map now. Before the Mexican-American War and Western expansion and he visited both North and South: New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans.The book is labelled as both American History and Political Science. De Tocqueville said the first volume was more about America, the second about democracy. The introduction by Mansfield and Winthrop, the translators and editors of the edition I read, called it both the best book on America and the best on democracy. That despite it being written by a French aristocrat--at least by birth although the introduction describes him as a democrat and liberal by conviction.De Tocqueville says in his own introduction he did not mean to write a "panegyric" to America. He's critical, at times presciently so, of America and democracy both, and doesn't pull his punches about how slavery and racism might pull apart the country. He doesn't hesitate to call slavery "evil" and his depiction of the plight of Native Americans is both insightful and heartbreaking. Surprisingly so, not what I expected from a Westerner writing in the 19th Century. Yet despite some sharp criticisms--and it being written by an outsider, a foreigner, the book has been embraced and quoted by Americans both from the Left and Right. It's said to be commonly assigned in political science courses and I wish some excerpts had been assigned in mine, instead of the execrable People's History by Zinn. De Tocqueville in the end strikes me as much more credible, still relevant and much more thought-provoking about democracy and its faultlines--especially the "tyranny of the majority."That's not to say this makes for easy reading. At times I considered giving up on it, slapping a two star rating as too tedious to read. Parts are a slog. I suggest anyone tackling this buy a paperback copy they don't feel hesitant to mark up and highlight and that they take it in short doses. This isn't one of those light, entertaining books. This isn't dessert or junk food. It's a meaty dish; one you chew on and parts can be hard to digest. But the man is brilliant. And it's surprising to me how 200 years later so much resonates in this book and is relevant to contemporary America and its politics. Well worth the effort to anyone interested in democracy or America. At least the first volume is, which definitely deserves five stars for amazing. That first volume was a popular bestseller in its day, the second volume less so, and I can understand that. As De Tocqueville noted, the first book is more on America, and is grounded in a lot of telling observations. Not that it's absent in this second book, but the second volume is a lot more theoretical, and I think a lot of its points are better made in the first part. I also admit I'm not inclined to accept one of his major themes in this second volume, that religion is essential to democracy. And he seems very much off the mark in his contention that American democracy doesn't produce great literature or advances in the sciences. Admittedly, in 1835 when this second volume was published, about the only well-known American writers of fiction were James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving. I can't say I much agree with his criticisms of individualism either. That's not to say reading both parts wasn't worthwhile, but less essential I feel than the amazing first volume.
    • 3/5
      Offers an insightful analysis of our political system in the abstract. Many of the social particulars he writes about have obviously changed with time.
    • 5/5
      Genius. Sheer genius. It seems like any book about American politics or history that I've read has at least one quote from this book, so I finally figured I should read it. Man, is this ever great. It's fascinating on so many levels. As history, it's primary source observations of a Frenchman who studied the United States in the 1830's. As a book on politics, it describes our government in depth, giving not just the facts of how it operates but also the rationale and history behind it. As a sociological tome, it mirrors the attitudes and behavior of the American people as well as contrasting those to the English and French. As a booster seat, it's nice and thick. It took me weeks to read (over a number of meals), and every day or so I found some tidbit to make me stop and think about the people around me--neighbors, co-workers, fellow church members. It's not a simple read, since Tocqueville, like other 19th century writers, is very lengthy and doesn't limit himself to one field of study. But it is definitely worth making an effort to read. Why I wasn't given this to read in high school, I don't know. Well, it's twenty years late, but I'm gonna put a copy on my shelf.--J.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      One of the most important political works of its time, Democracy In America is still referred to today.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      need I say Tocquville is a real genius comparable to Karl Marx and E H Carr? Quite good at drawing a grand design and making delicate distinctions. He can be funnier than Carr sometimes.

      1 person found this helpful