![]() ![]() Tocqueville adopts a holistic vision of society and rejects the idea that any sphere of activity is somehow separate from broader social trends. Erosion of elite status is a necessary engine of all progress: “discoveries in the arts could not be made, nor improvements in commerce and industry be introduced, without creating almost as many new elements of equality among men” (5). Tocqueville sees history largely as a progressive march forward, a continuous evolution toward his own time. Increasingly, society was governed by laws and commercial preoccupations, and more people became literate. ![]() His expansive vision focuses on society more than political events: men who owned property first ruled the entire nation, but the clergy quickly gained social prominence in their own right. Tocqueville adopts a historical long view, arguing that equality has been advancing for several centuries, especially in his home country of France. ![]()
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