Democracy in America

Alexis de Tocqueville's 1838 Democracy in America is a classic of political theory - and of the problem-solving skills central to putting forward political ideas. Tocqueville therefore turned to America, then point the most established democracy in the world, to investigate the institutions that allowed it to run as a successful state - allowing people their say while preventing both the possible "tyranny of the majority" and the uncontrolled growth of government. Tocqueville's careful analysis of the strengths of American democracy was then applied to the problems of instituting democracy in France, providing a range of solutions that proved deeply influential in European political thought.