Alexis de Tocqueville was the most profound representative of political liberalism in continental Europe during the first half of the 19th century. His work presents democracy as a democratic state that recognizes rights and defines the obligations of the individual, as well as an imperfect process of claiming the rights of freedom and equality.

It is a duality that shapes to what extent democratic peoples will be truly free or will be subjected to the consequences of equality of conditions, namely individualism, the passion for well-being, and the formation of a welfare state. As he discovers in his comparative study between America and Europe, democracies are despotic when the establishment of popular sovereignty is limited to the will of a "powerful" authority or are liberal when expressed through free institutions that contribute to securing individual freedom and the common good.

Therefore, he believes that the management of the consequences of equality of conditions in democratic societies depends on the interdependence between freedom and equality, political rights and social rights of the citizens. The determining factor in the process of establishing a democratic state, as he will confirm by studying the American example, is not so much the institutions and laws but the morals, values, and beliefs of the people; in other words, the education of a people in the exercise of the freedom of equality.

As mentioned in the preface of the book, Tocqueville judges while describing the progress of democracy, which is why his work is complex to the extent that it contains mixed messages, a threatening warning, and a hopeful advice. Through reading the work of this important thinker, the author approaches one of the fundamental problems of modern times, the relationship between the state, the rule of law, and modern democracy.

Nausikaa Papanikolaou holds a B.A. from Carleton University (Ottawa, 1977), an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Ottawa (1980), a Diplome d’ Etudes Approfondies from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris, 1983), and a doctorate from the Department of Political Science and History at Panteion University (1998). She works in non-governmental organizations and writes studies related to human rights and the rights of minorities in modern democracies.