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How did universal manhood suffrage change Alexis de Tocqueville’s electorate in 1848?
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Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville, detail of an oil painting by T. Chassériau; in the Versailles Museum.
The February Revolution of 1848 significantly transformed Alexis de Tocqueville’s political standing by replacing the restricted voting system of the July monarchy with universal manhood suffrage.
Under this new system, Tocqueville’s electorate expanded dramatically from 700 to 160,000 voters. This shift proved highly favorable to his political career; he was elected to the Constituent Assembly as a conservative Republican, receiving 79 percent of the vote in 1848 and increasing his support to more than 87 percent in 1849.1