Alexis de Tocqueville, France (1805-1859)
Historian and political scientist, born in Verneuil, France. His writings gained him world-wide recognition as a political thinker. In 1835 he published a penetrating political study, De la Démocratie en Amerique (Democracy in America), from which he gained a European reputation. He became a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1839, and in 1849 was vice-president of the Assembly and briefly minister of foreign affairs.
In L'ancien Regime et la Revolution (1850), he concluded that by abolishing aristocracies, the people of both France and America had sacrificed liberty for equality; that demands for economic equality must necessarily follow those for social equality and that the final result must be authoritarian, centralised rule.
Tocqueville's reputation in the 19th century reached its high point during the decade following his death, as the great European powers began to implement universal suffrage. He died just at the onset of a revival of liberalism in France. The nine-volume publication of his works, edited by Beaumont (1860-66), was received as the legacy of a martyr of liberty.