De Tocqueville's Departure From France

General Introduction At the time of De Tocqueville’s departure from France and his visit to democratic America in 1831, social and political issues were on the rise in France. In the early 19th century, the methodological approach was developing, along with theories that had the potential to improve political policy, the status of women, and the conditions of labour. In a time of great political turmoil, the French regime had shifted from a monarchy state of power to a dictatorship and again to a monarchial state through a short span of time (Sage, 2010:11-13) This not only lead to political confusion and social conflicts in French society, but also led De Tocqueville to fear that democracy would lead to the deterioration of his valued aristocratic institutions and principles (Zeitlin, 2001:87).
At the same time that France was in a state of political turmoil, America had successfully developed a democratic state in which they could live. The predisposition for a dictatorial regime was not seen in the American revolution as it was in the French, and democracy allowed the country to grow and keep their individual freedom (Zeitlin, 2001:87). However, freedom was not found in all parts of America,
In this case, people would be a democratic regime and property would be that of an Aristocratic regime. Due to the attempts De Tocqueville made to study America in order to provide guidelines for the French, one can safely assume that De Toqueville believed that the people should govern society. De Tocqueville found that the unique American democracy had none of the social conflicts that France had experienced in their search for democracy, yet still retained a stature of liberty, a societal class equality, and direction of public affairs (Zeitlin,