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Hello, in 1831, Alexis De Tockville sailed from France to America

to learn how its democracy worked.

And therefore, what his own country might expect when inevitably, as he saw it,

democracy spread there.

In Aristocrat, he was worried that American democracy valued equality more than liberty,

that the majority could turn as the minority once subverted being one,

and that the people could easily elected the spotted charismatic leader who would undermine democracy.

In 1835, Tockville's report Democracy in America was published,

and with this he hoped that France could avoid the same traps,

as it moved, falteringly onwards from monarchy and aristocracy after revolution and Napoleon.

When we did discuss Tockville's democracy in America,

are Robert Guilde, Professor of Modern History at 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 and Economics at King's College London.

Robert Guilde, who was Alexis De Tockville?

Well, as you say, Tockville was a French noble.

...