Introduction

Tocqueville went to America to see what democracy really looked like. The advance of equality of conditions, he believed, was an irresistible 'providential fact', and Europe would sooner or later follow the same road, so the United States, where democracy had already been realised, had to be studied with care. Beginning with the self-governing townships of New England, he describes the American federal system, judicial review, the jury, freedom of the press and freedom of association, and shows how Americans use self-government and decentralisation to guard against the evils of centralised power. He also sees soberly the dangers of democracy, above all 'the tyranny of the majority', the pressure of majority opinion on minorities and on independent thought. And he predicts that America and Russia will one day each hold the destinies of half the world. It is acknowledged as the best book ever written on America and a classic of political science.