SOAN 2111 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Democracy In America, Alexis De Tocqueville, Aristocracy
19 Jan 2016
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He is regarded as one of the most important social and political theorists of the 19th century because he grappled in a most enlightenment manner with the implications of the two revolutions democratic and industrial. Born to a french noble family he retained through his life certain aristocratic views. He feared that the victory of the demos would lead to the erosion/destruction of these values and institutions. Yet the american revolution was free of any despotic tendency and suggested that democracy offered the fullest scope for the growth of liberty. Of course, aristocracy in the american context referred not to hereditary landed nobility but simply to the large, rich property holders. Democracy implies a government by people while aristocracy is governed off the rich. In his major work, he work of the america with one eye on his own country as in america the people ruled. She had her own democratic revolution but avoided france"s faith of despotism.
