Tocqueville on the Modern Moral Situation
Democracy and the Decline of Devotion
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7593792 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dana Jalbert Stauffer (0000-0002-7463-2102, The University of Texas at Austin, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 108 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 772-782 |
| Publication date | 2014-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0003055414000458 |
| OpenAlex | W2142871832 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 22 |
Most scholarship on the moral dimensions of Tocqueville's analysis of democracy focuses on the doctrine of enlightened self-interest. Surprisingly little has been written about his account of the underlying moral shift that makes this doctrine necessary. Drawing principally on Volume II of DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, but also on Tocqueville's letters and notes, I unearth his fascinating and compelling account of why modern democratic man loses his admiration for devotion and embraces self-interest. That account begins from individualism, but also includes democratic man's intellectual and aesthetic tastes, his low estimation of his moral capacities, and weakening religious belief. After examining what Tocqueville saw as the causes of the new moral outlook, I consider what he saw as its most profound implications. Departing from recent trends in Tocqueville scholarship, I argue that is in Tocqueville's account of the modern democratic condition as such that he has the most to offer us today
Admiration · Democracy · Doctrine · Epistemology · Individualism · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · European Political History Analysis · Law · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence · Psychology · Social Psychology
Working at the Same Time to Animate and to Restrain
Tocqueville and Democratic Historical Consciousness
The Church in “Politics Proper”
The Alt Right and the Religious Impulse
Democracy and Tocqueville’s aesthetics of the revolution
A Bible, an Ax, and a Tablet
Tocqueville on Religion, the Enlightenment, and the Democratic Soul
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,64 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2025 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |