In 1844, Robert von Mohl, Professor of Political Science at the University of Tübingen, published a lengthy article on the “Entwicklung der Demokratie in Nordamerika und der Schweiz”, in which he accused Tocqueville of not giving due attention to the polycentric system of the American federal state and its constitution in his work De la démocratie en Amérique (Mohl 1844, 275–310). This accusation was based on the different approaches of both authors. While Mohl emphasized the construction of the federation in the German distinction between federal state and confederation in his essay (Benz 2013, 9–51), Tocqueville placed his work under the aspect of the advantages and disadvantages of a decentralized administration. It was, therefore, an oversimplification to refer to the concept of federalism only to the political system, the separation of powers between the levels. Instead, Tocqueville sought to understand the functioning of the federal system, which is why his explanations did not focus solely on the specific constitutional order but primarily on the administrative structures that had grown within society and the political culture in the USA.