Tocqueville’s Tangents to Democracy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13044693 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Donald J Maletz (University of Oklahoma, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 612-631 |
| Publication date | 2015-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Thought (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2161-1580 • E-ISSN: 2161-1599 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/683197 |
| OpenAlex | W2229957402 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 15 |
Despite asserting that he found nothing more striking in the United States than the “equality of conditions,” Tocqueville draws together his analysis of important nondemocratic “tangents to democracy” in a very lengthy concluding chapter of the 1835 Democracy in America. He seeks to explain these nondemocratic “tangents” and to understand why and how they coexist with egalitarian principle. A restrictive “relative sense of justice” constrains the extension of equality, and a bedrock “republican” sensibility, trusting mainly in the slow action of society upon itself, underlies the federal principle. In the emerging commercial spirit, Tocqueville observes a kind of energy that may expand the provincial spirit of relative justice while also hinting at imperial enterprises. Despite these factors, Tocqueville maintains his thesis about the primacy of democracy in American life, while bringing more nuance and accuracy to the argument of his first volume of Democracy in America
Argument (complex analysis · Democracy · Economic Justice · Epistemology · Law and economics · Nothing · Political science · Politics · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · European Political History Analysis · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence
The rise of American democracy
Political Liberalism
Democracy in America
The Rise of American Democracy
Tocqueville between Two Worlds
The Making of Tocqueville's Democracy in America
Tocqueville's Tyranny of the Majority Reconsidered
Tocqueville as Critical Race Theorist
The Dark Side of Tocqueville
Toward a More Perfect Union
The ThirdDemocracy
Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2023 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |