Not by Preaching

Tocqueville on the Role of Religion in American Democracy

Bibliographic Data

ID6403743
AuthorsCatherine Zuckert (corresponding author)
Year1981
Volume43
Issue2
Pages259-280
Publication date1981-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Review of Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0034670500029752
OpenAlexW2125691428
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited8

Both Jack Lively and Marvin Zetterbaum comment on the paradoxical character of Alexis de Tocqueville's teaching inDemocracy in Americawith regard to the importance of religious belief in maintaining liberal democracy. By concentrating on the political utility of religious belief to the point of indifference as to its content, they argue, Tocqueville undermines the very belief he finds necessary to the preservation of liberty. Moreover, how can the proponent of unrestrained freedom of the press and the enlightened rationalism of “self-interest rightly understood” advocate the creation of “social myths”? Both critics conclude that Tocqueville's position is untenable. I shall argue, on the contrary, that Tocqueville's argument is internally consistent. From a democratic perspective, Christianity represents an accidental historical heritage. By adapting to democratic conditions, Christianity can persist and even have important political effects, however. It provides an essential foundation for the individual and political self-restraint necessary to maintain liberal democracy, but it exercises its influence indirectly, through the wholly liberal means of public opinion in the context of a strict separation of church and state. Because Tocqueville sees a natural source for the simplified religious beliefs necessary to maintain a liberal democracy, he does not need to advocate the inculcation of “myths.” Popular faith alone does not secure the liberty of the individual in the United States, but in the absence of widespread religious belief, neither economic “individualism” nor liberal political institutions would either

Argument (complex analysis · Christianity · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Faith · Individualism · Law and economics · Liberal democracy · Political science · Politics · Separation of church and state · Sociology · State (computer science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies