Democracy in America Vol II

Democracy in America was published in two volumes, the first in 1835 and the second in 1840. It is a classic work on the United States in the 1830s and its strengths and weaknesses as seen from a European point of view. It is also regarded as a pioneering work of sociology.

The primary focus of Democracy in America is an analysis of why republican representative democracy has succeeded in the United States while failing in so many other places. Tocqueville seeks to apply the functional aspects of democracy in the United States to what he sees as the failings of democracy in his native France.

Tocqueville speculates on the future of democracy in the United States, discussing possible threats to democracy and possible dangers of democracy. These include his belief that democracy has a tendency to degenerate into "soft despotism" as well as the risk of developing a tyranny of the majority. He observes 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 the religious, which he relates to the connection between church and state.

Tocqueville also outlines the possible excesses of passion for equality among men, foreshadowing the totalitarian states of the twentieth century as well as the severity of contemporary political correctness.

Insightful analysis of political society was supplemented in the second volume by description of civil society as a sphere of private and civilian affairs, mirroring Hegel.

Tocqueville observed that social mechanisms have paradoxes, as in what later became known as the Tocqueville effect: "social frustration increases as social conditions improve". He wrote that this growing hatred of social privilege, as social conditions improve, leads to the state concentrating more power to itself.

Tocqueville's views on the United States took a darker turn after 1840, however, as made evident in Craiutu and Jennings' Tocqueville on America after 1840: Letters and Other Writings.

By : Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 - 1859), translated by Henry Reeve (1813 - 1895)

00 - Preface



01 - Pt 1, Ch 1 and 2



02 - Pt 1, Ch 3 and 4



03 - Pt 1, Ch 5 and 6



04 - Pt 1, Ch 7 and 8



05 - Pt 1, Ch 9 and 10



06 - Pt 1, Ch 11 and 12



07 - Pt 1, Ch 13 and 14



08 - Pt 1, Ch 15 and 16



09 - Pt 1, Ch 17 and 18



10 - Pt 1, Ch 19 and 20



11 - Pt 1, Ch 21



12 - Pt 2, Ch 1 and 2



13 - Pt 2, Ch 3 and 4



14 - Pt 2, Ch 5 and 6



15 - Pt 2, Ch 7 and 8



16 - Pt 2, Ch 9 and 10



17 - Pt 2, Ch 11 and 12



18 - Pt 2, Ch 13 and 14



19 - Pt 2, Ch 15 and 16



20 - Pt 2, Ch 17 and 18



21 - Pt 2, Ch 19 and 20



22 - Pt 3, Ch 1 and 2



23 - Pt 3, Ch 3 and 4



24 - Pt 3, Ch 5 and 6



25 - Pt 3, Ch 7 and 8



26 - Pt 3, Ch 9 and 10



27 - Pt 3, Ch 11 and 12



28 - Pt 3, Ch 13 and 14



29 - Pt 3, Ch 15 and 16



30 - Pt 3, Ch 17 and 18



31 - Pt 3, Ch 19 and 20



32 - Pt 3, Ch 21 and 22



33 - Pt 3, Ch 23 and 24



34 - Pt 3, Ch 25 and 26



35 - Pt 4, Ch 1 and 2



36 - Pt 4, Ch 3 and 4



37 - Pt 4, Ch 5 and 6



38 - Pt 4, Ch 7 and 8

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