There was a lot of debate about america in this period. And if you, if you studied democracy America, you could see what was going to happen in france and in europe later down the line. I mean, her for example, lafayette, who was the great hero of the revolution, ad had toured America in the 18 twentiesandd had had stories about how the americans combined liberty with slaveryA but a sototvild with a young friend of his. Totook leave of absence from from france. Their their ostensible project, for which a permission, was to do a study of prison reform inAmericas. But his real go his
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) and his examination of the American democratic system. He wrote De La Démocratie en Amérique in two parts, published in 1835 and 1840, when France was ruled by the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe. Tocqueville was interested in how aspects of American democracy, in the age of President Andrew Jackson, could be applied to Europe as it moved away from rule by monarchs and aristocrats. His work has been revisited by politicians ever since, particularly in America, with its analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of direct democracy and its warnings of mediocrity and the tyranny of the majority.
With
Robert Gildea
Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford
Susan-Mary Grant
Professor of American History at Newcastle University
and
Jeremy Jennings
Professor of Political Theory and Head of the School of Politics & Economics at King's College London
Producer: Simon Tillotson.