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• Translator’s Note
• Acknowledgments
• Key Terms
• Foreword
• The Manuscripts of Tocqueville
• Some Details Concerning the Present Edition
• Abbreviations and Symbols Used In This Edition
• Note On the Manuscripts
• Acknowledgments
• Illustrations
• Editor’s Introduction
• I: Legacies
• II: To Understand the Revolution
• Democracy In America a (1835), Volume I]: Part I
• Introduction a
• Chapter 1: Exterior Configuration of North America
• Chapter 2: Of the Point of Departure and Its Importance For the Future of the Anglo-americans a
• Reasons For Some Singularities That the Laws and Customs B of the Anglo-americans Present
• Chapter 3: Social State of the Anglo-americans
• That the Salient Point of the Social State of the Anglo-americans Is to Be Essentially Democratic
• Political Consequences of the Social State of the Anglo-americans
• Chapter 4: Of the Principle of the Sovereignty of the People In America
• Chapter 5: Necessity of Studying What Happens In the Individual States Before Speaking About the Government of the Union a
• Of the Town System In America C
• Town District
• Town Powers In New England
• Of Town Life
• Of Town Spirit In New England
• Of the County In New England
• Of Administration In New England a
• General Ideas On Administration In the United States
• Of the State
• Legislative Power of the State
• Of the Executive Power of the State
• Of the Political Effects of Administrative Decentralization In the United States C
• Chapter 6 A: of the Judicial Power In the United States and Its Action On Political Society B
• Other Powers Granted to American Judges
• Chapter 7: Of Political Jurisdiction In the United States Tn 4
• Chapter 8: Of the Federal Constitution
• Historical Background of the Federal Constitution a
• Summary Picture of the Federal Constitution J
• Attributions of the Federal Government
• Federal Powers
• Legislative Powers: R [difference Between the Constitution of the Senate and That of the House of Representatives]
• Another Difference Between the Senate and the House of Representatives W
• Of Executive Power 16
• How the Position of the President of the United States Differs From That of a Constitutional King In France
• Accidental Causes That Can Increase the Influence of the Executive Power
• Why the President of the United States, to Lead Public Affairs, Does Not Need to Have a Majority In the Chambers
• Of the Election of the President
• Mode of Election
• Election Crisis
• Of the Re-election of the President
• Of the Federal Courts 24
• Way of Determining the Jurisdiction Tn 5 of the Federal Courts
• Different Cases of Jurisdiction
• The Federal Courts’ Way of Proceeding
• Elevated Rank That the Supreme Court Occupies Among the Great Powers of the State
• How the Federal Constitution Is Superior to the State Constitutions
• What Distinguishes the Federal Constitution of the United States of America From All Other Federal Constitutions
• Of the Advantages of the Federal System In General, and of Its Special Utility For America M
• What Keeps the Federal System From Being Within the Reach of All Peoples; and What Has Allowed the Anglo-americans to Adopt It

Acknowledgments

I very much want to extend my deep thanks to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University, which continually put at my disposal the innumerable manuscripts that I was able to consult. My thanks go to the entire staff, and very particularly to two curators, Marjorie G. Wynne and Vincent Giroud. I also thank the Beinecke Library for its kind permission to quote and to reproduce the manuscripts and documents of the Tocqueville collection.

Illustrations

The illustrations appear following the indicated page.

• 1.First page of the introduction to volume 1 lxxviii(with kind permission of the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 2.Portrait of Alexis de Tocqueville by Léon Noël lxxviii(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 3.Battery Park, New York City, original pencil sketch by Gustave de Beaumont 100(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 4.Château de Tocqueville, photograph. No date. 100
• 5.Tocqueville on horseback, original pencil sketch by Gustave de Beaumont 200(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 6.Beaumont at Cannes, in 1859; original pencil sketch by Gustave de Beaumont 200(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 7.Portrait of Mary Mottley, artist unknown. 409(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 8.View of the Auburn prison, in the State of New York; original pencil sketch by Gustave de Beaumont 409(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 9.Niagara Falls, original watercolor by Gustave de Beaumont 648(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 10.Detail of a page from a copy of Chapter X, second part, vol. II 648(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 11.Map of the United States appearing in the first edition of Democracy in America (1835) 687(with kind permission from Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library).
• 12.Fragment from the Rubish 787(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 13.Stockbridge, original watercolor by Gustave de Beaumont 787(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 14.Château de Beaumont, original pencil drawing by Gustave de Beaumont 934(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 15.Hunter at the Hudson River, original pencil drawing by Gustave de Beaumont 934(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 16.Pencil comment of Tocqueville’s on Beaumont’s Marie manuscript 1024(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 17.Birds in Memphis, original watercolor by Gustave de Beaumont 1024(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 18.Portrait of Gustave de Beaumont, 1837 1175(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 19.A page from the working manuscript of Democracy 1175(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 20.Bird painted at Pontiac, original watercolor by Gustave de Beaumont 1330(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).
• 21.Saginaw Forest, original pencil sketch by Gustave de Beaumont 1330(with kind permission from the Beinecke Library, Yale University).

Editor’s Introduction

“Man obeys first causes of which he is unaware, secondary causes that he cannot foresee, a thousand caprices of his fellows; in the end, he puts himself in chains and binds himself forever to the fragile work of his hands.”

Alexis de Tocqueville

“I have spoken and dreamed a great deal about what I have seen; I believe that if I had the leisure after my return, I would be able to write something passable on the United States. To embrace the whole in its entirety would be foolishness. I am incapable of aiming at a universal exactitude; I have not seen enough for that; but I already know, I think, much more than we have ever been taught in France about it, and certain points of the picture can be of great, even current interest.”22

Published in two parts, in 1835 and 1840 successively, republished more than one hundred and fifty times and translated into fifteen languages, Democracy in America has elicited an enormous interest since its appearance. Elevated to the status of a classic of political philosophy and, as such, probably the last great text of that discipline, Tocqueville’s work continues to attract readers, researchers, thinkers, and politicians, thanks to a modernity that few works of the nineteenth century can claim.

Regarding Democracy, the question of its topicality is often discussed. This is entirely appropriate if by it we mean that this exceptional work still continues to be understood and studied.

With the perspicacity that was characteristic of him, Tocqueville envisaged the reception of his book in this way: “Some will find that at bottom I do not like democracy and that I am harsh toward it; others will think that I imprudently favor its development. I would be happier if the book were not read, and perhaps that happiness will come.”23

Readers have not failed to multiply, but they have indeed divided as the author forecast. It could not have been otherwise since this contradictory interpretation coincides precisely with Tocqueville’s thinking and its development.

[22.] Letter to Édouard de Tocqueville, Washington, 20 January 1832. This letter belongs to the Yale University collection of manuscripts (Yale Tocqueville Collection—hereafter cited as YTC—classification BIa2). The reader will find in the Foreword a complete list of the abbreviations and symbols used in this edition.

[23.] In a letter of the correspondence with Kergorlay [1835] (OC, XIII, 1, p. 374), but probably addressed to someone else.