What major difference did Tocqueville witness when he visited America in 1831?
Answers
During Tocqueville’s visit of America in 1831, his main observations were the success of Republican representative democracy, the gradual disappearance of aristocracy and patriarchal system.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 – 1859) was a French political theorist and sociologist, who visited the United States in 1831, with his associate Gustave de Beaumont – a French magistrate and prison reformer. He was originally sent to study the US prison system, but ended up studying the American society as a whole and came out with the famous book ‘Democracy in America’.
Tocqueville witnessed political hypocrisy and found America rich in contradictions when he visited America in 1831 to study American penitentiaries.
In his own words,
“Americans are taught from birth that they must overcome life’s woes and impediments on their own. Social authority makes them mistrustful and anxious, and they rely upon its power only when they cannot do without it.”