Innovative and pragmatic, the political institutions of the young American nation attracted the brightest minds of Europe. Among them was a French legal expert whose penetrating analyses remain relevant today.
Charles Alexis Clérel, the Count of Tocqueville, was born in 1805. His career as a Justice Magistrate began in 1827 at Versailles. In 1831, he was sent to the United States to investigate its penal system. There he studied the institutions and ways of life in the new nation. Tocqueville published his observations as Democracy in America, between 1835 and l840. It enjoyed immediate success in France as well as in England (Tocqueville married and practiced law in England). The acuity of its analyses and its almost clairvoyant commentary, made Democracy in America an immediate classic. To this day, it remains an extremely accurate study of the American political system. Tocqueville was one of the first political thinkers to point out the potential danger of the 'dictatorship of the majority' inherent in a democracy. He also insisted on the importance of an independent press and judiciary. Elected to the prestigious Académie Française, he was a liberal member of the opposition to the government, and deputy from the Manche region of northern France. As such, he defended the freedom of education and free trade. After the 1848 Revolution, he was elected to the Assembly and charged with drawing up the constitution of France's Second Republic. Many aspects of this constitution bear his trademark and were clearly inspired by the American example. In particular, it calls for presidential elections by universal suffrage every four years and the separation of the powers of government. As deputy at the Legislative Assembly of 1849, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, of Tocqueville opposed Napoléon III's coup. He went into exile first to Italy and then to Germany. In 1859, he died in Cannes in the south of France.
Embassy of France in the U.S. - September 13, 2001
Innovative and pragmatic, the political institutions of the young American nation attracted the brightest minds of Europe. Among them was a French legal expert whose penetrating analyses remain relevant today.
Charles Alexis Clérel, the Count of Tocqueville, was born in 1805. His career as a Justice Magistrate began in 1827 at Versailles. In 1831, he was sent to the United States to investigate its penal system. There he studied the institutions and ways of life in the new nation. Tocqueville published his observations as Democracy in America, between 1835 and l840. It enjoyed immediate success in France as well as in England (Tocqueville married and practiced law in England). The acuity of its analyses and its almost clairvoyant commentary, made Democracy in America an immediate classic. To this day, it remains an extremely accurate study of the American political system. Tocqueville was one of the first political thinkers to point out the potential danger of the 'dictatorship of the majority' inherent in a democracy. He also insisted on the importance of an independent press and judiciary. Elected to the prestigious Académie Française, he was a liberal member of the opposition to the government, and deputy from the Manche region of northern France. As such, he defended the freedom of education and free trade. After the 1848 Revolution, he was elected to the Assembly and charged with drawing up the constitution of France's Second Republic. Many aspects of this constitution bear his trademark and were clearly inspired by the American example. In particular, it calls for presidential elections by universal suffrage every four years and the separation of the powers of government. As deputy at the Legislative Assembly of 1849, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, of Tocqueville opposed Napoléon III's coup. He went into exile first to Italy and then to Germany. In 1859, he died in Cannes in the south of France. 
