de Tocqueville. de Tocqueville. People drop Alexis de Tocqueville's name like they've actually read his stuff. Some of us have, and are the better for it.
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion blesses us with a link to "A timeless critique from Tocqueville" - an eerie prescience of the Obama nation?
From Democracy in America, volume two, part four, chapter six: "What Kind of Despotism Democratic Nations Have to Fear"