One of the earliest analyses of American culture was that of Alexis de Tocqueville, who traveled the country in 1835 and 1840. In his Democracy in America, De Tocqueville reported on what Americans thought of themselves, and much of what he writes evokes the traditions and myths by which Americans are identified to this day. Among the traditions De Tocqueville cites about American society are the notion of rights for everyone, the public spirit of the people, and the general respect for law. He also addresses the question of the possibility of the tyranny of the majority and the ways in which this is mitigated as he writes: "But in the United States the majority which so frequently displays the tastes and the propensities of a despot, is still destitute of the more perfect instruments of tyranny" (De Tocqueville 261). De Tocqueville then shows how the minority is protected from the tyranny of the majority by provisions in the U.S. Constitution, a theme that can be found in many other writers on American political traditions. Commentators such as Samuel P. Huntington and Benjamin Barber refer to De Tocqueville directly and indirectly.
Alexis de Tocqueville set out with a particular goal in mind--he wanted to describe the way in which a particular social condition, that of equality, made itself felt in the political institutions of the American nation and in the customs, habits, and manners of the citizenry. The social condition of equality is the moving force and principle of democratic regimes. De Tocqueville saw this as the fundamental fact from which all others concepts of democracy would have to be derived. De Tocqueville praises democracy but also shows that he has a real fear of what he sees as the American passion for equality and finds that it can be compatible with tyranny as well as with liberty. Some of the essential nature of what de Tocqueville found in the American political and social system remains in forc...