Alexis de Tocqueville published Democracy in America. In this work, as in The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856), he attempted to answer the question of why things didn’t go as well in France as in the United States. He wrote that there were five fundamental differences: 1) France was more centralized, while the United States was federal; 2) in France, the general will was elevated by the Revolution above the freedom of individuals; 3) in France, the Revolution attacked religion and the Church; 4) in the United States, power remained in the hands of extremely practical men, while in France it slipped into the hands of irresponsible intellectuals; 5) in France, equality was placed above freedom; they had chosen Rousseau instead of Locke.
