Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy Quotes

A collection of quotes by Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy.

Alexis de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian born in 1805. He is best known for his book "Democracy in America," published in 1835 and 1840. Tocqueville traveled to the United States to study its political and social systems, aiming to understand the nature of democracy and its potential implications. His work explored the strengths and weaknesses of democracy, emphasizing the importance of civil society and individual liberties. Tocqueville's insightful observations and analysis continue to be influential in political science and sociology.

In some countries a power exists which, though it is in a de

In some countries a power exists which, though it is in a degree foreign to the social body, directs it, and forces it to pursue a certain track. In others the ruling force is divided, being partly within and partly without the ranks of the people. But nothing of the kind is to be seen in the United States; there society governs itself for itself. All power centers in its bosom, and scarcely an individual is to be met with who would venture to conceive or, still less, to express the idea of seeking it elsewhere. The nation participates in the making of its laws by the choice of its legislators, and in the execution of them by the choice of the agents of the executive government; it may almost be said to govern itself, so feeble and so restricted is the share left to the administration, so little . do the authorities forget their popular origin and the power from which they emanate. The people reign in the American political world as the Deity does in the universe. They are the cause and the aim of all things; everything comes from them, and everything is absorbed in them.

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy

Power