直到啟蒙時代,民主仍然與其他政體構成一個相對靜態的分類體系。但在托克維爾的論述中,民主與貴族制構成一對動態的對立概念,民主成為指引歷史運動方向的時間之矢,它將在時間的征程中不斷削弱貴族制,將平等推向新的境界。因此,他眼中的民主是一個開放的、未完成的概念。隨著民主概念的時間化,長期被視為典范的古代民主失去了參照意義。民主概念的時間化意味著過去、現在和未來都被整合到一場不斷邁向平等的運動之中,歷史因而獲得了一種時間標準。但由于自身的局限,托克維爾對民主進程在空間上呈現的多樣性,以及資產階級社會不平等的產生機制認識不足。

Until the enlightenment era,democracy was a relatively static category within other political systems.In Tocqueville’s narrative,however,democracy and aristocracy were a dynamically opposed pair of concepts.Democracy was the rector,guiding the direction of historical movement;in the course of time,it would weaken the aristocratic system and foster a new level of equality.Consequently,in Tocqueville’s eyes democracy was an open and unfinished concept.Along with the temporalization of the concept,ancient democracy,long considered a model,lost its referential significance;the temporal nature of democracy meant that past,present and future were integrated into a movement toward equality.History thus acquired a temporal standard.However,his own limitations meant that Tocqueville did not fully understand the spatial diversity of the democratic process and the mechanism that produced bourgeois inequality.