ABSTRACT
It is generally believed that equality, in the static sense of equality of conditions at any given point in time, is a main independent variable in Democracy in America. And it is true that many of Tocqueville’s analyses to refer to equality in this sense, notably his discussions of democratic conformism and democratic envy. Yet I believe that the idea of dynamic equality – high rate of social, economic mobility – is at least equally important. He argues that the absence of classes in America can be explained by the high turnover rates among groups – from rags to rags, or from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves, in three generations. If he had been asked why there is no socialism in the United States, that would almost certainly have been his answer. (Interestingly, Marx read and was probably in¶uenced by this analysis.) In his analysis of American politics, Tocqueville also emphasized its high rate of metabolism that made for constant changes in legislatures and administrations. It is a portrait of a society constantly on the move that is in many ways inconsistent with the vision of a society based on envy and conformism.
