It has been said that a French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville, whovisited the United States in the 1830’s, “understood us” in a way that fewobservers (foreign and domestic) have. Furthermore, Tocqueville’s Democracy inAmerica is often cited by present-day critics because so many of theobservations in it seem extraordinarily suitable even more than one hundred andfifty years later. Alexis de Tocqueville was born 1805 into a minor noble family,in which his grandfather had been guillotined during the French Revolution. Hehad come to the United States in 1831 to study the prison system, in which hedid not do, instead he wrote Democracy in America. He had stayed in the UnitedStates through February 1832 for about nine months, so intrigued by democracy,majority rule, and the absence of social hierarchy. Democracy in America wasfirst published in 1825, full of observations and interpretations, was writtenas a sort of warning for European readers; “Is this what you want?” he asks.
This book was famous for two accurate predictions, one, the U.S. would somedaybe a world power as would Russia, second, race would prove to be the mostintractable problem for the U.S.
One of Tocqueville’s observations about the United States is that hethought there is no country in the civilized world that is less attention paidphilosophy than the United States. This is applicable to American life in 1997because the whole world is practically joined to the United States. Just aboutevery country in the world trades with, tours in, and watches for the UnitedStates. What I mean by watches is that they practically always know what’s goingon (except for the top-secret things) in the United States, whether it be bytelevision, computers, or satellites they know what the U.S. is doing. The U.S.
is basically a “free-for-all” county; the laws and schools are less strict thanother countries such as, Japan in which the students there have to go to schoolsix days a week with much more homework then U.S. schools.
Another observation of Alexis is that religion is associated with allthe customs of the nation and all the feelings of patriotism. Another way ofsaying this that there is a religion for everyone. This is still true in 1997because everyone has there own belief and goes to the church or believes in thereligion that they desire. The religious person believes in what he or she wantsto believe in and in most case respects what another persons religion might be.
The reason for “most” to be in there was because some people are heavilyreligious and want other people to join there religion and try things such as,persuasion.
Another observation by Alexis is that the majority in the United Statessupply a mass amount of ready-made options for the use of individuals, who arerelieved from having to form their own. What this means is that since there aremany people in the U.S., if someone is unable to supply there own option thenthere will be one for you. Let’s say here for a broad example that someone isunclear of which religion he should join, he will choose the one that persuadesor suits him the best. Another way of putting this is that people get ideas offof other people. Lets say that someone had part of idea and you had the other,if one of you expressed this idea to the other then you have the full idea.
An overall view would be that Alexis de Tocqueville many have been rightabout America in the past and for a fact some of the observations, the onesstated above for example, are still true to this day and might be true in thefuture. Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, some people would say, is oftencited that many of the observations in it seem extraordinarily suitable evenfrom one hundred and fifty to the present-day. Tocqueville’s Democracy inAmerica was often cited by present day critics because of his observations andmost people think this will continue to be true in the future.
