Alexis de Tocqueville, the First Social Scientist

'The long battle over the thought of one of the nineteenth century's most enigmatic figures continues here with the publication of Jon Elster's Alexis de Tocqueville, the First Social Scientist. With characteristic care and incisiveness, Elster explores insights embedded in Tocqueville's great works, Democracy in America and The Ancien Régime and the Revolution, with a view to the question: does social science begin here? This book lays the groundwork for what ought to be an ongoing conversation among social scientists intent on exploring the origins of their field. No serious readers of Tocqueville will return to his writings without Elster's question in the back of their minds.' Joshua Mitchell, Georgetown University

'Apart for his own contributions to social theorizing, Elster is famous for his skills of 'making sense' of the work of classical writers in social thought. In this book, he mines the plentiful repository of de Tocqueville's Democracy in America and Ancien Regime. The author finds, apart from limited instances of 'elusive', 'muddled', and 'extravagant' rhetoric, an amazing number of original and fine-grained causal mechanisms that Tocqueville pioneered to employ in his effort to explain social phenomena and change. Elster's method of 'extracting', 'reconstructing', and 'decoding' through sophisticated interrogation the French democratic aristocrat's writings brings to light a number of 'exportable' causal mechanisms. They can enrich the toolbox of today's social scientists. In the process, the book's provocative title becomes ever more plausible.' Claus Offe, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin

'In this remarkable book, Jon Elster makes Tocqueville's conceptual system a critical part of a large intellectual project. Dubbing Tocqueville the 'first' social scientist, Elster focuses on how he thought rather than on what he found. He brilliantly explains Tocqueville's seemingly contradictory formulations and ambiguities of language as iterations in search of causal linkages. We can profitably use Elster's Tocqueville for making sense of our own social state.' Olivier Zunz, University of Virginia

'There is much ingenuity in the arguments put forward here and a refreshing newness of approach … The fresh air of new scholarship and new approaches can only invigorate.' Contemporary Review