We will, however, remain within the limits of a. description If we
simply extend Tocquev ille's analyses, as they themselves urge us to
identify those features which point to. the formation of a new despotlsm.
The indeterminacy we were discussIng does not pertain to. the order
of empirical facts, to. the order of economic or social facts which, like
the gradual extension of equality of condition, can be seen to. be born
of other facts. Just as the birth of totalitarianism defies all explanations
which attempt to. reduce that event to. the level of empirical history,
so. the birth of democracy signals a mutation of the symbolic order, as
is most clearly attested to. by the new position of. power.