The roots of republican government and democratic ideals are firmly planted in James Madison's "The Federalist No. 51, The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments." Written on...

In his survey of American society in the early 1800's, Alexis de Tocqueville spares a few chapters to describe the American woman as he sees her. Obviously, from our more modern view, Tocqueville's claim that women and men in America enjoy a...

How is it that, almost 180 years after it was written, Americans today still read Tocqueville as if it were the most essential piece of American political thought? Maybe it’s because it is.

When reading chapters 7 through 10 of Volume 1, Part 2 in...

A white picket fence and 2.5 children is the standard model of the American dream. It is an often quoted ideal and the literal dream of many people in the country. However; there is a problem in the definition of this dream in that the very nature...

“Disbelief is an accident; faith alone is the permanent state of humanity,” writes Alexis de Tocqueville in his book Democracy in America (284). According to Tocqueville, there are a few main threats that oppose democracy: the need for equality,...

Imagine the most important thing in life. Is it money? Is it friendship? Is it grades? Many people maintain that they value love or religion or knowledge more than material goods and success. Nevertheless, society as a whole is very materialistic....