Democracy in America

This book lays out, in a really wonderful way, how ideas are translated into political institutions, and even more so into mores and habits and practices of everyday life. I think it’s very important to a Whiggish kind of conservatism, to see how ideas translate into practice. They don’t translate in a simple way. They don’t just affect the words of the constitution and the structure of institutions; they affect every part of life. And de Tocqueville is not altogether comfortable with that.