Every regime shapes a common character,

每一种政体塑造出一种共同的性格
a common character type with distinctive traits and qualities.

一种共同的性格类别有着独特的特性品质
So the study of regime politics is in part a study

所以政体政治研究
of the distinctive national character types

就如同独特民族性格类型的研究
that constitutes a citizen body. To take an example of what I mean,

组成了公民主题举例而言
when Tocqueville studied the American regime or the democratic regime,

当托克维尔研究美国政体或民主政体时
properly speaking, in Democracy in America,

确切来说在《美国的民主》中
he started first with our formal political institutions as enumerated

他首先研究宪法中列举的正式政治机构
in the Constitution, such things as the separation of powers,

诸如权力的分配
the division between state and federal government and so on,

州与联邦政府的分界等
but then went on to look at such informal practices

但之后就开始研究非正式实作
as American manners and morals,

诸如美式礼仪及道德