The French, Meiji and Chinese Revolutions in the Conceptual Framework of Tocqueville

For Hiroshi Watanabe, ancient China offers an illiberal and democratic experience that could foreshadow the future of Western democracies. He invites us to fear a possible sinization of America, thus joining the fears of Tocqueville. By following the Tocquevillian analysis of democratic tendencies, it becomes clearer how China became a democratic society, from the Song dynasty in 960 to the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911, finding in Chinese history traits of a democratic culture.