Alexis de Tocqueville was a french aristocrat who belonged to the French Chamber of Deputies. Although part of the upper class of french society, Tocqueville was liberal in his ideas and agreed with many of the ideas set forth by Locke, Montesquieu and Rousseau. His two most prominent fears were the fear of tyranny and the uniformness of public opinion which would eventually come to shape in the form of this book Democracy in America, although the major fact which would shape his book would be his first visit to the United States in 1831. During the era of the early 1800's, democracy in the global community was uncommon. When Tocqueville first came to America in 1831, the first american ideal that would stand out to him was the equality of social conditions in american society. Although not perfect, social conditions in American were much more equalized than that of France or England. This was also supported by Tocqueville's denomination of America as the "first middle class society " in both size and influence on manners and values. Another uncommon aspect of American society that Tocqueville found most interesting was the law of inheritance. Unlike it's English or French counterparts, the American law of inheritance equally divided assets between heirs. This meant that the wealth in american society circulated more broadly and equally. .
While on his 1831 tour of America, Tocqueville noted the large impact that New England had on the rest of american political culture. New England's population was mostly made up of citizens from similar origins and liberal ideals. New England's influence reigned supreme in terms of the intervention of the people in public affairs, free voting on taxes, personal liberty and trial by jury. This also gave way to the idea of popular sovereignty or the will of the people. The idea that the authority that public figures had derived directly from the people was fairly new and had a large impact on how the public viewed their elected officials.