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"Tocqueville’s most telling observation, still true, is that so-called democracies are usually something else. They stabilize themselves by evading democracy, building up their own aristocracies, and erecting ideological firewalls against popular sovereignty. Whether that evasion of democracy is something to be cherished or to be overcome is another question. But to see the question in that light is already a remarkable gift to receive across nearly two centuries."

https://newrepublic.com/article/165923/olivier-zunz-tocqueville-book-review-uneasy-vision-american-democracy