ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Norwegian and, more generally, Scandinavian public debate and policies were quickly influenced by American ways and experiences, as they were presented for the European public by Gustave de Beaumont and Alexis de Tocqueville. Their journey in the eastern part of the continent in 1835 and their publications that followed had a significant impact on European and, not least, Scandinavian debates on the rule of law, the state prisons and, most importantly, democracy. These issues were most famously addressed in Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. And yet, as I show in this chapter, Beaumont and Tocqueville’s report on American prison systems and their European relevance played a significant role in the Norwegian debate on “modern” prisons. The chapter addresses three critical moments of Tocquevillian reception in Norway: 1840, 1852 and 1859. The first concerns the work conducted by the Penitentiary Commission [Straffeanstaltkommisjonen]; the second deals with the debate on introducing a jury institution in Norwegian courts, and the final addresses the emerging debate on democracy and parliamentarism that followed Tocqueville’s death in 1859.
