Recent visits to Tocqueville-Land

There is something quintessentially Tocquevillean about the American debate concerning public opinion and its role in political life. Or perhaps we should put it the other way round and say that Tocqueville was among those few Europeans able to grasp something quintessentially American about public opinion in America. Whatever the proper rendition of this remarkable case of "elective affinity" - of Wahlverwandtschaft - it is beyond dispute that Tocqueville's Democracy in America has become th..