Page "Puritan" Paragraph 53

Alexis de Tocqueville suggested in Democracy in America that Puritanism was the very thing that provided a firm foundation for American democracy.

As Sheldon Wolin puts it, " Tocqueville was aware of the harshness and bigotry of the early colonists "; but on the other hand he saw them as " archaic survivals, not only in their piety and discipline but in their democratic practices ".

The theme of a religious basis of economic discipline is echoed in sociologist Max Weber's work, but both de Tocqueville and Weber argued that this discipline was not a force of economic determinism, but one factor among many that should be considered when evaluating the relative economic success of the Puritans.