Democracy in America

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Regnery Publishing, Mar 1, 2003 - Political Science - 703 pages
Classic analysis of America's unique political character, quoted heavily by politicians and perennially popping up on history professors' reading lists. The book's enduring appeal lies in the eloquent, prophetic voice of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), a French aristocrat who visited the United States in 1831. A thoughtful young man in a still-young country, he succeeded in penning this penetrating study of America's people, culture, history, geography, politics, legal system, and economy. Tocqueville asserts, I confess that in America I saw more than America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress.
 

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Contents

INTRODUCTORY NOTICE
xix
EXTERIOR FORM OF NORTH AMERICA
14
ORIGIN OF THE ANGLOAMERICANS AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN RELATION TO THEIR FUTURE CONDITION
20
SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE ANGLOAMERICANS
35
THE PRINCIPLE OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE IN AMERICA
41
NECESSITY OF EXAMINING THE CONDITION OF THE STATES BEFORE THAT OF THE UNION AT LARGE
44
JUDICIAL POWER IN THE UNITED STATES AND ITS INFLUENCE ON POLITICAL SOCIETY
73
POLITICAL JURISDICTION IN THE UNITED STATES
79
PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES
134
LIBERTY OF THE PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
140
POLITICAL ASSOCIATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
147
GOVERNMENT OF THE DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA
154
WHAT THE REAL ADVANTAGES ARE WHICH AMERICAN SOCIETY DERIVES FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DEMOCRACY
186
UNLIMITED POWER OF THE MAJORITY IN THE UNITED STATES AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
201
CAUSES WHICH MITIGATE THE TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY IN THE UNITED STATES
215
PRINCIPAL CAUSES WHICH TEND TO MAINTAIN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC IN THE UNITED STATES
228

THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION
84
WHY THE PEOPLE MAY STRICTLY BE SAID TO GOVERN IN THE UNITED STATES
133
THE PRESENT AND PROBABLE FUTURE CONDITION OF THE THREE RACES WHICH INHABIT THE TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STAT...
264
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About the author (2003)

French writer and politician Alexis de Tocqueville was born in Verneuil to an aristocratic Norman family. He entered the bar in 1825 and became an assistant magistrate at Versailles. In 1831, he was sent to the United States to report on the prison system. This journey produced a book called On the Penitentiary System in the United States (1833), as well as a much more significant work called Democracy in America (1835--40), a treatise on American society and its political system. Active in French politics, Tocqueville also wrote Old Regime and the Revolution (1856), in which he argued that the Revolution of 1848 did not constitute a break with the past but merely accelerated a trend toward greater centralization of government. Tocqueville was an observant Catholic, and this has been cited as a reason why many of his insights, rather than being confined to a particular time and place, reach beyond to see a universality in all people everywhere.

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