According to Tocqueville, why did an elite aristocracy never establish itself in the United States?

Alexis de Tocqueville, a French sociologist and political theorist, provides several reasons in his work "Democracy in America" for why an elite aristocracy never established itself in the United States. One of the primary reasons Tocqueville notes is the absence of a feudal past in America. Unlike Europe, where feudal societies had deeply ingrained aristocratic structures with landowners and serfs, the U.S. was relatively free of such legacies, having been colonized at a time when feudalism was in decline.

Another reason is the way land was distributed in the U.S. There was an abundance of land available to settlers, and land ownership was not concentrated in the hands of a few, but rather widely available to many individuals. This prevented the concentration of wealth and power that typically forms the basis of an aristocracy.

Tocqueville also observed the social mobility inherent in the U.S. as a barrier to aristocracy. The idea of the "American Dream" where anyone could rise to wealth and success through hard work and determination was a powerful counter-narrative to the European class system that was still prevalent at the time.

Laws and political institutions in the U.S. were designed to encourage democratic governance and equality. The elimination of primogeniture (inheriting of all property by the firstborn son) and entail (keeping landed estates within a family), for example, prevented the perpetuation of an aristocratic class through inherited wealth.

Moreover, Tocqueville noted the egalitarian mindset of Americans and the value they placed on equality and individualism. This cultural inclination towards equal opportunity and suspicion of hereditary privilege curtailed the establishment of a formal aristocracy.