Tocqueville effect

The Tocqueville effect (also known as the Tocqueville paradox) is the phenomenon in which, as social conditions and opportunities improve, social frustration grows more quickly.

The effect is based on Alexis de Tocqueville's observations on the French Revolution and later reforms in Europe and the United States. Another way to describe the effect is the aphorism "the appetite grows by what it feeds on". For instance, after greater social justice is achieved, there may be more fervent opposition to even smaller social injustices than before.

The effect suggests a link between social equality or concessions by the regime and unintended consequences, as social reforms can raise expectations that are difficult to fulfill. According to the Tocqueville effect, a revolution is likely to occur after an improvement in social conditions, in contrast to Marx's theory of revolution as a result of progressive immiseration of the proletariat (deterioration of conditions).

Around 1950, Harlan Cleveland introduced the phrase revolution of rising expectations, which in his Cold War context he considered particularly relevant to the Third World. Relatedly, political scientist James Chowning Davies has proposed a J curve of revolutions, which contends that periods of wealth and advancement are followed by periods of declining conditions, eventually leading to a revolution. Ted Robert Gurr also used the term relative deprivation to put forth that revolutions happen when there is an expectation of improvement, and a harsh reality in contrast.

There’s a higher likelihood of the Tocqueville paradox occurring in centrally planned but locally implemented reforms when local implementation falls short of the higher reference point.

Alexis de Tocqueville first described the phenomenon in his book Democracy in America (1840):

The reform and revolution paradox was explained in his next book, The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856):

• Dissolution of the Soviet Union after Perestroika and Glasnost having been instated
• Progress and Poverty
• Relative deprivation
• Jevons paradox
• Huang Zongxi's Law
• Hedonic treadmill