How did Alexis de Tocqueville explain the continuity between prerevolutionary and postrevolutionary France?

In his final work, The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856), Alexis de Tocqueville argued that postrevolutionary France remained deeply connected to its past, rather than breaking from it entirely. He sought to demonstrate a fundamental continuity in political behaviors and attitudes that left French society predisposed to accept despotism, much as it had under the old regime.1

Influenced by the political instability of 1848–1851, Tocqueville emphasized two primary factors that persisted across the revolutionary divide:

• Centralization: He identified the durability of administrative centralization as a key feature that survived the transition from the monarchy to the revolutionary era.1
• Class Hostility: He highlighted the enduring nature of social and class tensions, which continued to shape the political landscape of France long after the fall of the old regime.1

Ultimately, Tocqueville concluded that France was less a forward-looking democratic society and more a prisoner of its own history, struggling with the same structural tendencies that had characterized its prerevolutionary past.1