A good resume of Alexis de Tocqueville, De la democratie en Amérique

Interesting take on happiness in a democracy

‘When all the prerogatives of birth and fortune have been abolished, when every profession is open to everyone, an ambitious man may think it is easy to launch himself on a great career and feel that he has been called to no common destiny. But this is a delusion which experience quickly corrects. When inequality is the general rule in society, the greatest inequalities attract no attention. But when everything is more or less level, the slightest variation is noticed… That is the reason for the strange melancholy often haunting inhabitants of democracies in the midst of abundance and of that disgust with life sometimes gripping them even in calm and easy circumstances.

http://www.theschooloflife.com/blog/2014/10/the-great-philosophers-alexis-de-tocqueville/