Book Review On Democracy In America By Alexis De Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville is regarded amongst the first thinkers of the 19th century that challenged the existing historical account about the founding of America. The prevailing account claimed that Americans’ regime and politics were, as a result of a revolutionary war but ended with the ratification of the Constitution. During that account, Tocqueville had paid a visit to the United States in 1831. At the same time, the citizens celebrated the” founding fathers” since they believed they contributed towards the development of the Americans’ culture and way of life. To illustrate this point, Timothy Pitkin said, “a more intimate knowledge and recollection of the difficulties which their political fathers had to overcome,” so that his readers might better appreciate the “great charter of their union, as their best and only security against domestic discord and foreign force.” In contrast, Tocqueville based his work on the development of two formative elements. He observed that the Puritan-New England tradition only covered the founding of America in 1775 to 1789. Tocqueville provided insight to the puritan colonies, finally combining principal ideas that in the end led to the development of social theory of the United States. Tocqueville played a major role to bring a sense of New England’s “civilization” to the Americans. The achievement was compared to, “fires set on a high slope whose light “still tinge[s] the furthest reaches of the horizon.”
Tocqueville came up with two different interpretations explaining the origin of America. He never put effort's to bring the explanations closely but explained his views in a simple and easier way. He failed to acknowledge or criticize the prevailing view and went ahead to provide his own sketch about the explanations. Tocqueville objective was either to modify the prevailing view or replace it with his account. Finally, he came up with “Democracy in America,” where he based his ideas on “two-founding thesis.”
At the beginning of “Democracy in America,” he introduces the “two-founding thesis,” in a chapter known as “On the Point of Departure and Its Importance for the Future of the Anglo-Americans.” The chapter appears to provide a basic explanation on the historical explanation about how America started. At the same time, a critical analysis regarding the explanation discloses that something else rather than the historical explanation motivated Tocqueville thesis. The “two-founding thesis,” aimed at providing strong theoretical positions regarding the political foundation for a modernized and liberalized democratic government. The presence of Enlightenment thought explained how the political foundation depended on the doctrine of philosophy like the natural law theory. Such explanation appeared to endanger the cause of liberty according to Tocqueville. His explanation was based on “customary history,” since he totally disagreed with the foundations based on the philosophy. He based his “two-founding thesis,” on customary history crafted especially for America. Tocqueville foundation was promoting a great project initiated by his mentor, Montesquieu, and targeted to change the way in which political philosophy developed political life.