作为西方思想史上主要的民主理论家之一，托克维尔认为应该对藏匿在现代政治民主背后的“民情”给予重点关注。托克维尔的民情内涵意旨整个社会的知识和道德因素的总和，他在《论美国的民主》中主要关注了乡镇精神、自由结社、法治思想、宗教传统等四个方面。在他看来，民情具有极大的不确定性：既可能发展演变成自由的民主，也可能会成为专制的民主。而且，不同的民情孕育不同的制度，反过来，不同的制度又促使民情发生相应的变迁。正如同托克维尔所说：“民主即将成为一股不可逆转的时代潮流”，如今的民主政治已经成为建设政治文明的重要标志，其作为中国社会转型的逻辑产物和必然要求，目前也正是加快我国民主化进程的最好时机。但由于中国民主化进程所处的特殊时期以及传统文化固有的缺陷等，使得我国民主化进程中还存在一系列问题。对于此，从托克维尔的民情思想的内涵和外延中，我们可以试图发掘出近代中国民主化进程中的民情因素，并针对这些因素对构建合理的制度得出一些有益的启示。

As the history of Western thought important democratic theorists Tocqueville thought that， given the focus should be hiding behind the development of modern democratic sentiments thought. Tocqueville's sentiments connotation knowledge of the intention of the community as a whole and the sum of the moral factors， derived from the Latin. The Tocqueville hope sentiments in equality， but the future of the freedom of the unknown fate and inequality but free in the past between the carrier acts as a heritage of freedom and spiritual bridge. For the influencing factors of the condition of the people under democratic conditions， Tocqueville focused on the spirit of the township， freedom of association， four aspects of the ideology of the rule of law， religious traditions. In his view， public sentiment has a great deal of uncertainty， in a democratic society may form a liberal democracy， it may cause the authoritarian democracy. And， different sentiments gave birth to a different system， in turn， the different systems， while promoting changes in the sentiments.As more than 170 years ago， Alexis de Tocqueville predicted "Democracy is about to become an irreversible trend of the times" Today， democracy has clearly become an important symbol of the construction of political civilization， as the logical product of the transformation of Chinese society and an inevitable requirement It is also the best time to speed up the process of democratization in China. However， due to China's democratization process is in a special period as well as traditional culture inherent flaw， making China a series of problems in the democratization process. For this， from Tocqueville's sentiments ideological connotation and extension of， we can get some useful inspiration on how to properly treat freedom， faith， tradition， the rule of law， rights and how to build a reasonable system.