Alexis de Tocqueville is best known for his views on democracy in America, and his work as a political scientist has earned him a renowned reputation in France, but few realize that his observations on America aided in a sociological perspective of nations suffering under tyranny and its effects. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayAlexis de Tocqueville was born in 1805 into an aristocratic family in Paris, France, recently rocked by French revolutionary upheavals. Both of his parents had been imprisoned during the Reign of Terror. After attending college in Metz, Tocqueville studied law in Paris and was appointed magistrate at Versailles, where he met his future wife and befriended a fellow lawyer named Gustave de Beaumont. The July Revolution of 1830 which placed the city-king Louis-Philippe of Orléans on the throne was a revolutionary point for Tocqueville. This deepened his belief that France was moving rapidly towards complete social equality. Breaking with the older liberal generation, he no longer compared France to the English constitutional monarchy but compared it to democratic America. Of more personal concern, despite swearing allegiance to the new monarch, his position had become precarious due to his family ties to the deposed Bourbon king (Drescher). He and Beaumont, seeking to escape their uncomfortable political situation, requested and received official permission to study the undisputed problem of prison reform in America. They also hoped to return with knowledge of a society that would mark them as uniquely suited to help shape France's political future (Drescher). The travelers returned to France in 1832. They quickly published their report, “On the Penitentiary System in the United States and Its Application in France,” written largely by Beaumont. Tocqueville began working on a broader analysis of American culture and politics, published in 1835 as “Democracy in America.” As “Democracy in America” revealed, Tocqueville believed that equality was the great political and social idea of ​​his age, and he thought the United States offered the most advanced example of equality in action. He admired American individualism but warned that a society of individuals can easily become atomized and unexpectedly uniform when “each citizen, being assimilated to all the rest, is lost in the crowd.” He believed that a society of individuals lacked intermediate social structures – such as those provided by traditional hierarchies – to arbitrate relations with the state. The result could be a democratic “tyranny of the majority” in which individual rights are compromised. Remember: this is just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay Tocqueville's importance for sociology derives from at least three characteristics of his thought: his enormous interest in social observation in France, Great Britain, Algeria and America; his historical approach to understanding society: the importance of placing contemporary changes in historical context; and his causal and comparative imagination; his desire to discover the causes of some of the patterns and differences he identified in comparable societies. Tocqueville's works shaped 19th-century discussions of liberalism and equality, and were rediscovered in the 20th century as sociologists debated the causes and cures of tyranny. The term “Democracy in America” continues to be.