The intention of Tocqueville’s work can only be understood by placing it in the context of contemporary debates. De la Démocratie en Amérique was a provocation for his contemporaries. This is clear from the very title of the work. In France, where the concept of democracy was exclusively identified with the period of terror after 1795, leading nineteenth-century liberals preferred to use the term ‘republic’ because democracy necessarily ended in ‘anarchy, tyranny, misery [...] and finally despotism’ (Phillippe 1857, 203). It is only in the development of society, beyond the political sphere, that the liberals and republicans of the time observe “democratic” tendencies, as they see the old class distinctions disappearing and new social hierarchies based on legal equality no longer being permanent. Tocqueville takes up this view but develops it considerably. In doing so, he again draws on the American discourse as he experienced it in the 1830s. The positive definition of ‘democracy’ began in the United States in the 1820s, when small farmers and artisans were given the active right to vote. This, of course, was not without heated public debate about the true nature of popular government (Rogers 1987, 95). Andrew Jackson, in an attempt to win popular support, became the first presidential candidate to call himself a “Democrat” in 1828. He promised administrative reform to counter the widespread feeling that the federal government was controlled by a greedy, corrupt and privileged aristocracy of civil servants. As a result, he pledged to open up the public administration to elections (McSweeney/Zvesper 1991, 18; Reichley 1992).