Author’s Introduction of De Tocqueville

After reading the introduction I thought the author needed a new political science to support a totally new way of government.  Democracy existed but not in the way it exists in America.  On page 18, this perfectly describes what is different about America.  He talks about the differences in class and education between America and Europe at the time.  Political science is the study of goverment structure and function.  The author describes needing a new political science because the existing information about governments doesn’t really cover all the bases, with what’s going on in America.  It is necessary because it allows an understanding of how other systems work, and allow for prediction of the future of the government.  At the end of the introduction, the author says that this was the exact point of writing this book was to speculate about the future.  He wanted to show what he saw in America, and their system of government.  He has not set out to say that this way is better, or worse, just to show how it is to better understand other communities.