Tocqueville’s Politics of Grandeur

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7973191
AutoresGianna Englert (0000-0003-2609-276X, Southern Methodist University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen50
Número3
Páginas477-503
Fecha de publicación2022-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPolitical Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0090-5917 • E-ISSN: 1552-7476
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00905917211043790
OpenAlexW3199059692
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas37

In his defenses of empire, Alexis de Tocqueville emphasized the need to achieve grandeur for France, and his writings on Algeria have shaped our understanding of his political career. In pursuing empire abroad as a remedy for weak politics at home, scholars maintain that Tocqueville abandoned the participatory politics of Democracy in America. This essay argues, however, that the focus on Tocqueville’s international turn has obscured his interest in the greatness of domestic party politics. It demonstrates that Tocqueville championed a version of grandeur tied to the latent energies of the lower classes and distinct from the Bonapartism and aristocratic nostalgia that characterized his thoughts on empire. This version of grandeur was a political reclamation of disagreement and debate that supported great party opposition to counter the malaise of bourgeois rule. The essay concludes by comparing Tocqueville’s attitude toward foreign others, whose freedoms had to be sacrificed to the cause of French nationalism, with his description of the lower classes within his own nation, whose inclusion in the franchise could foster great politics. This comparison enables us to draw modest lessons for interpreting political grandeur in the present day

Art · Bourgeoisie · Democracy · Empire · Greatness · Literature · Nationalism · Opposition (politics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · European Political History Analysis · Law · Political Theory and Influence