Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville was a Frenchman, best known in the United States for a roughly 9-month tour in 1831 which helped him formulate, write and publish ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_America|Democracy in America]''.

==Speech Relevance==
Reagan mentions de Tocqueville in his ''[MythOfTheGreatSociety|Great Myth of the Great Society]'' speech in 1966 and in some of the radio commentaries.

From ''Great Myth of the Great Society'':
<blockquote>The French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville a hundred years ago said, "The end of freedom comes when the party in power learns it can perpetuate itself through taxation."</blockquote>
This quote has been attributed to, not just de Tocqueville, but several leading thinkers, but no evidence has been found of it in his writings.

<blockquote>To quote de Tocqueville again he warned that such a government would cover the face of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, and thus the will of man is not shattered, but softened and guided, until the nation is reduced to a flock of timid and industrious animals of which government is the shepherd.</blockquote>
This line is found in ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_America|Democracy in America]'' and is part of de Tocqueville's discussion on "[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_despotism|soft despotism]."
The Reagan Speech Preservation Society

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Alexis de Tocqueville
