Alexis de Tocqueville, the extraordinary French observer who chronicled how democracy rose and developed in America, is 200 years old today. In the Age of Democratic Revolution & Civil Society, he gave us all a roadmap that is more important than anyone ever realized. Great economists like Hernando de Soto, who first underlined the importance of property rights, got much of his material from American history and much of that he took from de Tocqueville.

Alexis de Tocqueville is a true polestar of authentic democratic revolution and a great capital-L Liberal.

The Adam Smith Institute blog has a marvellous essay on this authentic great revolutionary here.